Mist Murder

by Linnea West

  Inside the log was a gold coin. Maggie made it float to her and smiled when she read that it said “Best Witch Ever” on one side. She used her magic to set the pieces of the log back into the fireplace and turned to look at her mother.

  Esmeralda was sitting on the couch, beaming at what Maggie had accomplished with the new spell. Maggie thought it was good to see her mother smiling because it seemed to be happening less and less as the death problem grew.

  Maggie could feel herself smile also, a large, open mouth, proud smile. It was the kind of smile that didn’t happen often. In fact, Maggie could probably count on both of her hands the amount of times she had genuinely smiled because she was proud of herself. Many of her past wins were overshadowed by doubt and impostor syndrome. She often felt like perhaps votes had been miscounted or she had somehow misled people into thinking she was capable of doing anything well when really she was a complete failure.

  Grasping the gold coin in her hand, Maggie plopped back down on the couch next to her mother. She felt tingly all over, but instead of anxiety, she felt electric. It was like the magic and giddiness were mixed together, running through every single cell in her body. For a moment, she wondered if she was glowing a sparkly pink like she imagined her magic to be.

  Esmeralda reached over and grabbed Maggie’s hands, holding them in her own. For a moment, the two witches sat and stared into each other’s eyes. It felt like the vibrant feeling that Maggie felt was flowing back and forth into her mother also.

  Suddenly, it was like a wave of magic washed over her. It started in her hands and rippled out through her entire body. It was so powerful that Maggie was pushed back to the other side of the couch, ripping her hands away from her mother’s hands.

  As she stared at the ugly popcorn ceiling, Maggie took a few deep breaths and tried to figure out what just happened. Sitting upright, Esmeralda was crawling back up onto the couch from the floor. Maggie rushed over and helped pick her mother up. The older witch clung to her daughter’s arm, slowly working her way up from the wood floor where she had landed.

  Once they were both on the sofa, Maggie looked at her mother. The smile was gone, replaced by worry lines around her eyes.

  “What was that?” Maggie asked.

  Esmeralda gave her a sad smile. For a moment, Maggie thought she saw a tear glisten in the corner of her eye, but a second later, it was gone.

  “We were sharing magic,” Esmeralda said. “I should have known that it would have been powerful after that spell you did. Although to be honest, I didn’t realize that sharing magic was intuitive.”

  “What does sharing magic mean?” Maggie asked. “And how in the world did I do it?”

  “Witches can share magic,” Esmeralda said. “It means that we exchange what we need to. Our magic knows and is supposed to balance out. And I’m not sure how you could do it. I always thought witches had to be taught how to share magic.”

  Maggie watched the fireplace crackle and took a mental inventory of herself. She didn’t feel any different. It didn’t feel like anything alien was inside of her. She sort of assumed that foreign magic inside of her would feel like being pregnant, not that she actually knew what that felt like either.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but did you somehow force me to share magic?” Maggie asked. “Or like force some of your magic onto me?”

  Esmeralda’s head snapped toward Maggie, who quickly looked away. She wasn’t fast enough to avoid the glare, however. Those hazel eyes could display anger just as well as they could twinkle in delight.

  “Of course not,” Esmeralda said. “Both witches must consent to sharing magic. Somehow, your body and magic knew how to do it. Of course I would consent, I’m your mother. Either way, it’s done now. Let’s move on.”

  An uncomfortable silence fell around them as Maggie tried to figure out what they were supposed to move on to. She had been riding high after learning her new spell and she was trying to stay on that wave even though she had just accidentally angered her mother.

  “I think we should make a plan for tomorrow,” Esmeralda said. She sounded calmer after they had both taken a few minutes to eat some snacks and stare wistfully into the fireplace while they listened to the icy rain outside. “Now that you understand why you need to take charge, I’d like you to be involved a little more in the day to day planning in our investigations.”

  Maggie nodded, grasping her cup in both hands. It was still warm, which was just another reason to like magic. In that exact place and time, Maggie seemed a bit confused as to why she was afraid of magic. She had been so good at it that evening and it even did cool things like warm her hands and deliver her cookies. Maggie tried not to think about the time she almost started the house on fire.

  Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She wasn’t sure that her mother would enjoy it, but it made sense and it would help move the investigation forward.

  “I’ve got it!” Maggie said. She put her hands down, so excited that she couldn’t help but flap her hands around a bit as she described. “Let’s have Ned come with us to Cauldron Things and we can show him what we found. Maybe he could help.”

  “I don’t know,” Esmeralda started to say, but Maggie jumped in.

  “Hear me out,” Maggie said. “We are almost positive Ned didn’t do it despite being the first suspect. He knows potions and poisons. And as much as you don’t want to admit it, he knows way more about it than either of us do. Maybe he will have some insight or see something that we are missing.”

  “Or maybe he will manage to mess something up or get flustered in his potion excitement,” Esmeralda said.

  It was Maggie’s turn to give her mother a look.

  “If I can’t add someone to the suspect list just because I don’t like them, I don’t think you can exclude someone from helping because you don’t like them,” Maggie said.

  Esmeralda’s cheeks went pink, but she quickly recovered with a laugh.

  “You are absolutely right,” Esmeralda said. “Let’s agree that you can’t add Mariah to the suspect list without actual proof and I can’t exclude Ned from helping unless I have evidence that he will mess it up.”

  Maggie stuck out her hand. Her mother took it and gave it a quick shake as they both giggled. It had certainly lightened up the mood and they were able to make a general plan for the next day. Things felt a lot lighter on the inside, although there was always the spectre of the death problem and Esmeralda’s fading magic that seemed to be pressing in on them like the icy rain that was pelting on the windows.

  After they finished talking, they both settled in on the couch for one more cup of hot chocolate and a cheesy romance movie on the television that hung above the fireplace. As the two main characters fell in love, Maggie tried not to think about her love life or more rightly, the lack of one.

  She had never really been in a serious relationship. There had been a few casual relationships along the way and even one or two boys that she had called her boyfriend, but Maggie had never been in a serious relationship which also meant that she had never been in love.

  These sorts of movies always made her wonder how much she was missing. In general, once she could push past her anxiety, Maggie was happy despite her lack of a relationship. It wasn’t something she would deny wanting, but Maggie also wasn’t out looking for a relationship.

  At one point, there was a scene toward the end of the movie where the main female character was having a heart to heart conversation with her mother about loving the guy and her mother was encouraging her to go for it. It was sappy and lovey-dovey like any good romance movie.

  Maggie glanced at her mother during the mother-daughter scene, trying to read Esmeralda’s expression. Maggie’s mother never said anything about her not having a significant other or children, but Maggie often wondered if she had disappointed Esmeralda with how her life had turned out.

  Esmeralda would have loved to be a grandmother and have more kids running around to take care of.
Maggie knew she technically wasn’t too old to have children. She had just had her thirtieth birthday but with no prospects on the horizon, she already felt like her childbearing days were over before they had even started.

  Feeling a few tears started to pool in her eyes, Maggie quickly wiped them away. She didn’t want to delve too deeply into those feelings. She could save them for another night when they weren’t in the middle of a paranormal investigation. There were a lot more important things to think about like suspect lists and who in the world was doing magic in Grimwood Valley besides the two witches.

  Maybe she could save them for a time to talk through with Jill, although Jill was a bit of an inadvertent blabbermouth. It was pretty widely known that Jill couldn’t be trusted with a secret. She didn’t mean to tell a secret to the world, but once she got started talking, everything was going to spill out.

  Maggie wasn’t really sure what to do with these feelings. For now, she would simply have to bottle them up and save them for another time. It wasn’t like she could go out and find a husband or have a baby tonight. Even if she did make those things a priority, they would take time. Time was not something she had much of during the fog because all of her waking hours were devoted to Grimwood Valley. This short movie was a luxury that they normally wouldn’t take time to enjoy, but it was supposed to be a sort of celebration for Maggie’s magical win that night.

  Once the man and the woman in the movie ended up together and the credits rolled, Esmeralda shut off the television with the remote. Standing up, she started to levitate the food and drinks back onto the tray to take them back to the kitchen.

  Pointing at Maggie’s cup, it started to float toward Esmeralda. But after only a foot or so, it suddenly dropped out of the air. Faster than she thought she was able, Maggie dove forward and managed to catch the cup before it smashed on the ground, although she didn’t save the hot chocolate inside. It was the third time she had spilled a cup of liquid on the ground that day. Bad things were said to come in threes.

  “What happened?” Maggie asked.

  She returned the cup to the tray before looking at Esmeralda. The older witch’s face was slack like she couldn’t believe what had just happened.

  “I’m not sure,” Esmeralda said. “I was cleaning up and all of a sudden it was like my magic skipped a beat. It felt like a record player when it skips. My magic stuttered and the cup wasn’t enchanted anymore. I…I…I’m afraid this may be the beginning of the end.”

  Esmeralda sat on the edge of the couch, her shoulders slumped over as her lacy shawl slipped off one side. She looked small and pathetic all of a sudden and it made Maggie want to cry every more.

  “It’s okay Mom,” Maggie said. “I can finish the clean-up.”

  Maggie gathered the dishes by hand and stacked them all on the tray before carrying them to the kitchen. As she passed through the doorway, she heard a sob erupt from behind her. Walking into the kitchen, she felt her own sob wanting to push its way out, but Maggie wasn’t going to let it.

  She took a deep breath before she went back into the living room to comfort Esmeralda. Maggie wondered if her mother felt like she was losing a piece of herself.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ned’s face brightened as he took in Maggie’s question. Esmeralda was standing to the side where Maggie could keep an eye on her and make sure the older witch wasn’t making any faces as they invited Ned to help them that morning.

  “You really want me to come along?” Ned asked. “I would love to, especially because I can explore the potions a little bit more. I’ve been up all night trying to figure out if I missed something. Here, take a look at my list. These are all of the things I thought of and researched. Unfortunately, none of them seem relevant in this case.”

  The piece of paper that Ned was holding underneath Maggie’s nose had things written in all directions and seemingly crossed out. Ned the warlock’s handwriting was almost indecipherable, so it was hard to tell if some of the scratches were words or lines.

  “It looks like you’ve certainly been busy,” Maggie said.

  Ned looked like he had been up all night and if Maggie wasn’t mistaken, he hadn’t changed his robes either. They were taking on a slightly musty smell that mingled with the smell of too much coffee. The paper he was still waving around had at least three coffee rings on it.

  “I wish I could have come up with an answer for you, but so far, nothing,” Ned said. “I’m just glad you came to ask if I’d come along. Ever since I was a little boy, I hoped I could help solve a crime someday. Just think, this could be that day!”

  Rubbing his hands together in glee, Ned danced a little jig. He kicked up his heels and turned around in a circle. Maggie could hear her mother giggle, but when she turned to look at Esmeralda’s face, she could see that the laugh hadn’t been mean spirited. Esmeralda seemed genuinely happy to join in the fun with Ned.

  “Let’s go,” Ned said. “Time’s a-wasting!”

  Jamming his tall, pointy hat on his head, Ned swished out the door. As he pushed it open and strode out into the fog with more self-confidence than Maggie had ever seen, Ned even managed to switch the sign to say CLOSED. Esmeralda glanced from the door back to Maggie. All Maggie could do was shrug at her mother before rushing out the door to catch up with Ned. Esmeralda would be able to make her own way behind them with her trusty walking stick, but Maggie wasn’t so sure Ned would remember where to go in all of his excitement.

  “Hold on Ned, slow down just a little bit,” Maggie said.

  She scurried through the thick fog in the direction of Cauldron Things. Pressing through, Maggie hoped she could catch up with him before she ran straight into the back of him. The last thing she needed was to smell like Ned.

  Through the fog, Ned’s robed back and pointed hat appeared. He turned around, slowing down his pace just a smidgen. Maggie knew that he was particularly excited about the bottle that had been labeled as poison. Ned wanted to get a good look at it when they got there.

  “I’m sorry, I’m just terribly excited,” Ned said. “These last few days have been quite a roller coaster. First, the potion making class and then Linda dying and then I was a suspect and had to spend the night in jail before a surprise release. Now here I am helping to solve it. It’s a bit of a rush to have no idea how things are going to turn out.”

  Maggie couldn’t help but think if mild-mannered bookseller Ned from the normal world could only remember these times, he might not be so excited to offer his help to them. Maggie scooted up by his elbow and then slowed down her pace. Ned slowed to match her stride.

  Turning to glance behind them, Maggie could see that Esmeralda was making her way through the fog. Her walking stick was thumping along on the cobblestone street. As they neared the cauldron shop, Ned kept blabbering on about how excited he was and how potions were so amazing and that he hoped his expertise would be of some help to the witches. Maggie hoped so too or she might never hear the end of it from Ned.

  Pushing open the door to Cauldron Things, Maggie was happy to see that it was just the way the witches had left it the day before. No more surprise visitors or at least if there had been, they hadn’t done anything to mess up the place.

  Ned walked in, tentatively placing one foot in front of the other. His cheeks were puffed out and his face was starting to turn red.

  “Ned, it’s okay, you can breathe and be normal,” Maggie said. “We already looked around. You aren’t going to disturb anything.”

  Letting out a big puff of air, Ned bent over for a moment and inhaled deeply a few times. Both Maggie and Esmeralda took the opportunity to roll their eyes a few times while he wasn’t looking. It would be good to get it out of their systems before they got further into their investigation with the warlock. Once Ned straightened back up, he had his game face on.

  “So what exactly do you want me to look at?” Ned asked.

  He walked to the front table where he had been teaching the potion making class w
hen Linda died. He looked over the things that the witches had left behind after dissecting the potion, making grunts and thinking noises as he went.

  Maggie glanced at Esmeralda to see what she thought. Should they jump right into the hidden room and ingredients? Or would it be better to just let him look around first? Esmeralda just stared passively at Maggie. She was waiting for Maggie to make that decision.

  “If you could just walk around the room and look at everything first, that would be helpful,” Maggie said. “Everything is basically as it was when the class was interrupted. If you see anything that looks out of place or doesn’t seem to fit in, let us know.”

  Ned nodded and the tip of his pointy hat nodded with him. He started to slowly prowl around the room, his eyes seeming to search every square inch of each table that he went by. Every once in a while, he would pause and squint a little bit, like he was trying to determine if what he saw was what he thought it was. Each time Ned squinted, Maggie held her breath, hoping he had just stumbled onto something that would help move the case forward. But each time Ned shook his head and continued on as Maggie let out a puff of air and tried not to look disappointed.

  Esmeralda had found a stool and was sitting down, leaning forward heavily onto her walking stick. Maggie could tell that she was thinking of last night and the stutter in her magic. Had it been caused by the magical sharing that had happened before that? Had Maggie somehow stolen some of her mother’s magic? Maggie didn’t have an answer to that and she was not going to ask her mother.

  Esmeralda was already having a hard enough time with it, not that she wanted Maggie to know. There had been several times that morning that Maggie had caught her mother like this. It was like Esmeralda was trying to focus on her magic, as if there was less magic there, so she had to work on concentrating it. Or maybe Esmeralda was trying to meditate and think about what her life would look like without magic. Either way, it made Maggie want to cry to see her mother’s wrinkled face concentrating so hard. It was even harder knowing that she may have inadvertently caused it.