by Amy Boyles
It sounded like a relatively solid plan.
First thing tomorrow I’d be heading home.
TWENTY-TWO
Sweetie Death Wish—I mean Sprinkles—sat between Axel and me on the ride back to my house.
“Todd said I can leave town. He seems to think he can get Gilda to confess to Ebenezer’s murder and also confess what she did with the will.”
Axel’s brow lifted. “All good. I can help you get past Rufus, if you like. I can direct you to others like us who can assist you, teach you so that whenever he shows up, you can take care of him.”
I should’ve been grateful. Should’ve felt relief.
“Thing is…” I swiveled in the bucket seat so that one knee was hiked up as I turned to face him.
Axel tipped his head toward me. My chest bloomed. My heart pounded. Boy, what this guy did to me.
Course, we both had issues and had confessed that it wasn’t the right time for us.
But slap me stupid, had his lips felt good on mine.
“What’s the thing?” he said.
“So, you know my dad died a few years ago. I never knew my mom since she passed in childbirth. After he died, I squirreled away my feelings, picked emotionally distant guys to have as boyfriends. When I look back, I realize that I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where I could get hurt again. Being hurt is no fun. When I came here, I was wild-eyed and naive. I thought this whole witch business was crazy.”
I sighed, rested my head back on the seat. “But my family—they’ve accepted me with open arms. Betty might be nuts, but she’s my grandma. Cordelia and Amelia have both been awesome—they’ve helped me so much. Made me clothes, helped me with my first riding skillet. I don’t know…”
Axel took my hand. He pulled over outside my house and pivoted toward me. “You know, sometimes caring for people can bring hurt. I know that. You know that. But often the rewards outweigh those risks. Your family loves you. They accept you. That’s something, in my opinion, to grab ahold of and cherish above all else. Because we’re brought into this world with only our family around us, and when we leave, that’s who’s hopefully there as well. Now we can’t choose what sort of crazy we’re born into. If it’s bad, we make our own families. But Pepper, you’ve got one knock-down-drag-out gangbusters of a house full of women in there, and I think you know it.”
I squeezed his hand. “Thank you. You’ve helped clear everything up.”
And he had. My heart ballooned as I realized this was the place I was supposed to be. Not Nashville. Not anywhere else but Magnolia Cove.
I smiled.
Axel smiled, his dimple peeking. He dipped his head, and his lips brushed mine. Our mouths lingered. It was short and sweet, and when we pulled away, I cleared my throat.
“But that doesn’t mean anything,” I said.
He shook his head. “Nothing. Not a thing.”
Then our gazes met, and we burst into laughter.
“But seriously,” I said.
He nodded. “We’ve each got our own issues to work out.”
I sighed. “So it doesn’t mean anything.”
He shook his head sadly. “It can’t.”
Axel opened my door. I hopped out with Sprinkles in my arms. A wind kicked up and Sprinkles jumped from my arms, scampering down the street.
I shot Axel a tired look. “I’ll go get her. Thanks for dropping me off.”
His brows quirked. “You sure?”
I nodded. “It’s fine. Thanks for everything.” I laughed. “As long as I’m back at the house before curfew, it should be fine.”
“Okay. Call me if you need anything.”
I smiled. “I don’t have your number.”
My phone buzzed in my purse. Axel grinned. “You do now.”
“Impressive.” We waved goodbye, and I set off after Sprinkles. She sat outside Betty’s picket gate. But as I neared, she scurried off down the street, heading back toward downtown.
“Great,” I mumbled.
Axel’s taillights faded in the distance, and I hugged my arms as I strode through the quiet streets. One thing I had to say about Magnolia Cove, once darkness hit, the place got quiet fast. The few restaurants opened at night had a steady population of diners floating in and out, but the rest of the town hunkered down and faded into silence.
Sprinkles stopped outside my store. “All right, cat. Come on now. Time to go home.”
But just as I reached her, she ran back off, winding around to the alley. I followed her to the back door of the pawnshop.
“Please don’t run off again. I’m getting tired.” But she didn’t. Sprinkles jumped onto a low window and scratched at it. I reached for her, but she dodged my grasp. Again, pawing at the glass.
“Okay, what’s this about?” I pushed on the pane, and low and behold, the window slid open. Sprinkles jumped inside. She popped her head back out.
“Follow,” she said.
A shiver raced down my spine. She’d finally spoken. At long last, the cat had talked to me.
I studied the window. Now, with a little bit of Crisco and one good shove to my rear, I’d slide on through no problem. But I did not have Crisco, nor did I want to rub it over my naked body.
Now, if Axel was involved, that might be another story.
Wait. Stop that.
Focus.
As it was, I found an empty crate and stood on it. It was rickety, but it gave me enough height to get a good way into the window. I leaned up and over. My foot slid. The crate wobbled, slipping out from under my foot.
I pitched forward and tumbled inside, catching myself before I cracked my head on the floor. A wedge of pain lodged in my hip.
Groaning, I rubbed my back and side, working the kink out. I flipped a switch. The hallway lights glowed warmly, illuminating part of the shop in front. Sprinkles had jumped onto a bookcase and was clawing at one of the ancient tomes.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“Here,” she said.
Her words fired crisp in my head. Why the heck hadn’t she talked earlier?
I walked over to her. Her claw had snagged on a book. It looked like she was trying to pull it out. I hooked a finger on the top of it and yanked.
The book tumbled to the floor. “Oops. I guess I don’t know my own strength.”
The cover peeled back, revealing cut-out pages. A square of book had been dug out, creating a space to hide things.
“What’s this?” I said.
My phone buzzed. I pulled it from my purse and checked.
It’s me, Axel. Gilda had a heart attack on the way to the police station. They don’t know if she’s going to make it.
Ouch. Wow. Maybe the guilt had gotten to her.
I tucked the phone back into my purse and inspected the book. A folded sheet of paper had been tucked inside. Two folded sheets.
I opened the first one and started reading. It was Ebenezer’s first will, the one that named Gilda as beneficiary. The kids were completely cut out of this one, and if Gilda died, it named Todd as the next in line to inherit.
I unfolded another sheet, and this one was the will everyone was looking for. Dean and his sister were the inheritors with Gilda as third in line. Todd was nowhere to be seen in this will at all.
A slow, terrible realization started to sink in. Cold, nasty fear gripped my heart and squeezed to bursting.
I picked up my phone, scrambled to retrieve Axel’s number. I got it dialed.
“Hey, there. Miss me already?” he cooed.
“Axel, Gilda’s not the killer. In fact, I think someone deliberately hurt her.”
“What do you mean?”
“I found the will.”
A hand yanked the phone from my ear. I whirled around to see Todd looming behind me. He threw my phone to the ground and crunched it beneath his foot.
I backed up. “Oh, wow,” I said. “It was you. All along it was you.”
Todd’s handsome features twisted into a dark, se
rpentine look. He flicked a bit of dirt out from under his fingernails. “You know, I really tried to pin this one on you. I was going to be the hero, you see. I’d killed Ebenezer and then returned to the shop to be the sad nephew who found his uncle in a pool of blood. But then you came along and made it almost too easy. With blood all over your hands, how could you not have been the killer?”
He kicked my phone down the hallway, far from my reach. “But then everyone turned out to like you. The town embraced their new owner of Familiar Place. Didn’t matter. The police would find the guilty party eventually. Of course, I still had one problem. I needed to secure the newest will and get rid of it. You’ve done that for me now, haven’t you?”
He opened his palm. My grip on the paper tightened. His skin became dark, wraithlike. “Hand it to me before I suck the life from you.”
“It was you. You’re the wraith.”
A slow smile curved on his lips. “One and only.”
I pieced it together quickly. “Let me guess—your gambling bills became too much.”
Todd nodded. “I needed that money to pay off Bubbles, but my uncle wouldn’t give it to me. We struggled; the rest is oh so cliché. I killed him. He’d just changed his will, cutting me out of it completely. I managed to steal the lawyer’s copy before it could be read—yes, that was me, too. Now all I needed was to produce the one that came before it. Get the older will to be accepted as Ebenezer’s last will and testament and get rid of Gilda.”
His gaze flickered around the room. “I also needed to get rid of the cat. Gilda was trying to do a protection spell on the animal tonight. That’s what she was doing when you found her.” He laughed. “She wasn’t hurting it. She was protecting the stupid thing.”
“So you attacked me at Gilda’s house as the wraith. I’m assuming that was you, too.”
“I was after the cat. And that stupid piece of paper you found? It was a recipe for her prize-winning pie.”
I nearly planted a facepalm on my forehead. How stupid I had been. I glanced at the will. “So now you plan on destroying the true will, producing the older one for all the world to see and taking the money.”
“I’ve got plans that include me, tropical women, fruity drinks and tiki huts. Once this will appears on the lawyer’s desk, Gilda will be dead and I’ll be named heir. And it’s all thanks to you. I couldn’t have done it without you.” His lips twitched. “Don’t worry. When I’m lying on the beach surrounded by my millions, I’ll have a drink to your cold, dead body.”
Oh wow. So that’s where this was headed?
I shook out my hands. “Listen, I’m not going to tell anyone. You don’t have to kill me. Seriously. Who would believe me, anyway? I’m not very good at witchcraft, I don’t even really like animals, and I’m new in town. All things that mean no one will pay the slightest bit of attention to me.”
Todd reached out a hand. Black, ghostly flesh washed up to his shoulder. Ew. I didn’t know if that was permanent, but part of me wondered if his skin would get frozen that way. You know, like when you stuck your tongue at someone when you were a kid and your mom told you that your face would freeze that way.
I wondered if that’s what would happen to Officer Todd.
I wedged my back into the bookcase. “I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“It’s too late for that,” Todd said. “Much, much too late. Accept that you’re going to die.”
He reached out. Cold fear gripped me. I was struck dumb, paralyzed. Part of me thought it was Todd more than my own fear pinning me to the spot.
From behind me, Sprinkles hissed and launched herself at him. I heard her faintly yell, “Run.”
The cat’s claws raked over Todd’s face. He cursed and lifted his arms, giving me the moment I needed. I raced down the hall, flipped the lock and fled out the back door.
I didn’t know how long the cat could keep him occupied, but I had a feeling she had a world full of hate for him since he’d killed her master.
I sprinted down the street, not sure exactly where I was going.
Wait.
I did know where I was headed.
I would go home. To Betty’s house. Surely she’d be sitting in the living room, shotgun in her lap. She’d be stocked, loaded and ready for action.
I only needed Todd to follow me into the house.
My thighs burned as I pushed myself fast down the road. I rounded off the main street, sweeping past rows of houses. I saw Betty’s house just up ahead. It was so close. All I had to do was launch myself inside.
My foot was about to hit the front step, when—
Something grabbed a fistful of my hair. I was yanked back, landing flat on the concrete.
Pain arched up my back. The air punched from me. I gasped to fill my lungs, ease the pain.
Todd loomed overhead. He walked around, coming to stand at my feet. The detective made a motion of zipping a finger over his mouth.
I heaved a breath and tried to shout, but no sound came out.
He leaned down, filling my view with his wild, crazed eyes. “You can’t speak. No one can hear you. It’s sad, really, that your dead body will be found here, but there’s nothing I can do about that.”
His body darkened. His arms transformed into ghostly whips. Black fumes drifted off him. In a few seconds he would be a wraith and I would be dead.
I tried to get up, but it was no use. He was using another paralyzing spell on me.
Todd’s face twisted into a sick, perverted look of victory. He lashed out. I shut my eyes, waiting for the worst.
Then a screech squeaked from his throat.
I looked up to see the guard-vine wrapped around Todd’s neck. His fingers, now flesh, clawed at the vegetation, but it held strong.
The spell on me broke. I scooted back. I trained my gaze on Todd as the vine strangled the life out of him. It didn’t release its hold until Todd’s eyes closed and he sank to the ground.
The front door opened, and Betty stepped out. She gripped her shotgun hard as she took one look at Todd’s lifeless body.
“Told you it was a guard-vine. You can never tell what kind of baddies are around. It’s always good to have one.” Her gaze drifted toward me. “Time to call the cops. Looks like Officer Todd is dead.”
I rose on shaky legs and walked to the body. I reached trembling fingers toward his neck. There was no pulse.
Betty was right.
Officer Todd was quite dead.
TWENTY-THREE
Axel arrived about the same time as the police. I was worried that no one would believe me, that Todd had attacked me, but they had evidence pointing to the fact that he’d slipped Gilda a potion to make her have the heart attack.
Thank goodness, because I had been worried that I’d be arrested for Todd’s death.
Axel handed me a warm Styrofoam cup. “Once they start digging, I think they’ll find everything they need to know about Todd.”
I sniffed the container. Hot chocolate. I licked my lips and pulled jelly beans from my pocket. Yep, I’d started stuffing them in pockets everywhere I went. I slid a few in the cup. “I thought I was dead, for sure. But that whole wraith thing, was that part of his magic?”
“It was,” Betty said, striding forward. “As a policeman, he wasn’t allowed to use it for his own personal gain, but he didn’t play by the rules.”
“There are some interesting creatures here in Magnolia Cove,” I said to Betty.
“Tell me about it,” Axel murmured.
I sipped the liquid. Warm chocolaty goodness with a hint of cinnamon slid down my throat. A thought hit me, and I bolted upright. “Has anyone seen Sprinkles? If it wasn’t for her and the guard-vine, I’d definitely be dead. She attacked Todd in the pawnshop. Oh, and I think they’ll find both wills on Todd’s body, including the one naming Ebenezer’s children as beneficiaries.”
Axel rubbed my shoulder. “Calm down, there. All will be revealed.” He picked a cat up from the ground and set Sprinkles in my
lap.
I shot him a grateful smile. “Thank you.” I rubbed the cat behind the ear and said, “Why didn’t you tell us from the beginning it was Todd? You knew, didn’t you?”
The feline rubbed her face against my hand. “Too hard to talk about it.”
I hugged her close and glanced at Axel. “She says it was too hard to talk about.”
He nodded. “The trauma of it. You know, she and Gilda might make a good pair. Once Gilda gets out of the hospital, you could pair these two together, now that we know she wasn’t trying to hurt the cat.”
I picked Sprinkles up so that we were eye to eye. “Would you like that? Would you like to live with Gilda?”
In response, the cat purred even louder.
I took that as a yes.
A few days later I sat down to breakfast with what I now considered to be my family.
Yes, family.
Cordelia, Amelia and Betty squabbled over who was going to get the last biscuit until Betty finally flashed a butter knife and threatened to give both of my cousins boils on their bottoms unless they let her have it.
After all, she said, she was the one who had cooked it. Not them.
The old lady had a point.
Me? I was settling into my life in Magnolia Cove nicely. I had ordered a few more animals to take the place of the ones I’d sold, and my allergies were dying down.
I guess it was simply being near the critters that had helped me out there.
I still saw Axel around, but we’d come to an understanding about things between us. There was no us, which, as much as he made me hot in lots of places, I realized was for the best. After all, I was now a businesswoman, and I needed to figure all that out.
And no, I hadn’t tried to leave Magnolia Cove since the very first day I arrived. I knew Rufus was out there, waiting for me, and I didn’t know what he wanted.
I planned to keep it that way—at least until I was powerful enough to defend myself.
I was locking up Familiar Place one Wednesday evening. The heat of summer was beginning to wind away, retreating, as cooler winds were whisking in at night.
