Poison and Pinot (A Paranormal Cozy Mystery) (California Witching Book 2)

by Samantha Silver

  No one was paying any attention to the purse still lying on the ground, so I snatched it up, shoving it into my hoodie that I'd thankfully thrown on before I'd gotten out of the Lexus. With everyone preoccupied and running around the room, I sought refuge on the other side of the center kennel grid, where none of the officers who were still busy trying to peel furry bodies from around their ankles would be able to see me from where they stood.

  The interior of the small bag was rather unspectacular, filled with only a wallet, a folded-up piece of paper, a set of car keys, and a contact lens case. I opened the lens case first, a funny smell rising to my nose. A cat yowled as it raced past me, and I quickly closed the empty case, fishing the wallet out while footsteps echoed in the chaos. Quite a few credit cards, a handful of twenty-dollar-bills, a driver's license, and a few business cards were all Lisa was hiding inside of it. I stuffed the wallet back into the purse before focusing on the letter.

  I winced as I accidentally sliced my thumb along the edge of the paper, but when I looked down, I wasn't too surprised to see no sign of a papercut. I was definitely getting better at this whole being-a-witch thing. The letter was slightly wrinkled and looked like it had been opened and folded back up at least a dozen different times.

  The author of the handwritten note had nice, crisp lettering, but despite their pretty and simple appearance, the words were an entirely different story.

  Lisa,

  I think we both know why I'm writing this letter to you. After yet another astoundingly tone-deaf display of arrogance at the last board meeting, your days pretending to be some doting mother who gives a damn are over.

  Consider resigning from the board. For your daughter's sake, if nothing else.

  Sincerely,

  Callie M. Landsdowne

  While I had no idea who this Callie Landsdowne lady was, it was obvious that something had gone down between the two women, and that she was pissed off.

  The kennel closest to me rattled as someone closed the door on it. I shoved the letter back into the purse and dropped the whole thing to the ground before jumping up to my feet and scrambling to catch the nearest cat, pretending that I’d been helping this whole time.

  "Come here, you!" I shouted a little too loudly.

  It took a little doing, but we finally managed to get all the cats into the kennels, the two remaining officers looking like this had been the closest they’d come to hunting down criminals in a long while. One of them was showing the other a long claw mark running the whole length of his forearm, shaking his head.

  Whoops.

  As the door closed after them, Karen rounded on me, nostrils flaring.

  "You could have told me you were going to do that! These poor babies are all stressed out now because of your little trick."

  "I'm sorry, really, I am. But I just needed a window of opportunity. I went through Lisa's purse and—"

  "What! Why?" she whispered loudly, looking through the observation window as though someone could hear us through the pane of glass.

  "Because I wanted to see if there was anything weird in there, obviously." I rolled my eyes. "This whole thing is a little too suspicious, if you ask me, and I wanted to see if there was something equally suspicious inside her purse."

  Karen smacked her splotchy forehead with her own hand. "Taylor, you are losing it. You know that right? There's nothing weird going on. It's a tragedy to lose Lisa, but what's so weird about a heart attack? They're super common in women her age."

  "Maybe, but get this—I saw a weird letter in there addressed to her about resigning from some school board or something. It was from a woman named Callie Landsdowne. Lisa must have done something to really make her mad, and it looks like this Callie lady retaliated by writing her this rude letter. Threatening her." I folded my arms across my chest, waiting to gauge Karen’s reaction.

  She continued to gaze out the window as the officers, including Chief Benson, filed into of the main lobby where they were talking with Portia.

  "You're just having some flashbacks to what happened last time. Not every death is a murder, believe it or not. Plus, no one had the chance to kill her, anyway."

  "I don't know. I've got this funny feeling like there's more to this than meets the eye. What if the person who's responsible for this somehow came in undetected and killed her?"

  "No. I mean no one could have come in today without me noticing. I had the front doors locked while I was working in the back, getting all the food into the pantry. Lisa herself even came in through the back door while I was getting all that taken care of. I definitely would have noticed if Mrs. Landsdowne had stopped by. She drives an obnoxious half-ton truck that I would have heard from a mile away. The only people that have been here today have been Lisa, Portia, and you. And like I told the police, Portia was over in Sonoma, running errands. She was in earlier to drop off some clean blankets from home before she headed out that way. We're still working on fixing our washing machine, and I think we might even get a new one."

  "Right, okay. I got it. But that still doesn't explain the weird letter. Or the eyes."

  Karen gave me an exasperated sigh. "People can write threatening letters and then not follow up on them. Have you ever read the comments on Facebook posts? The human race would be decimated if everyone acted on every threat they ever wrote. Come on. Let's make sure the cats are all taken care of. We can check on the dogs after, and close up for the day. I think Portia will forgive me for closing up early."

  Chapter 5

  I knew it was just the magic Barbara was using to enhance her homemade candles, but the weight on my shoulders felt a little lighter when Karen and I finally made it over to Creekside Trinkets.

  Barbara had locked the front doors for lunch today, giving her some time to work on the magical candles without any interference. I always watched her with great interest every time she sat down to work on combining different herbs and natural wax – sometimes beeswax, sometimes soy wax - then infusing her mood-controlling special powers into each and every candle. To anyone who bought them, the candles seemed like normal, pleasant-smelling little lights of joy whose scent that matched the little picture wrapped around the front of them, but to witches like us, they each had their own aura. I didn't even have to smell the light scent of this one to know that it was her calming batch. Right now, the sweet smell of lavender flowers mingled with notes of vanilla. “Calm Serenity”, the name of this particular candle, was definitely the kind of mood enhancer I was after right now.

  "Well, hello there, I wasn't expecting to see you too, dear," she said to Karen, still focusing on the bubbling wax in the medium-sized cast-iron cauldron at her feet. "Don't you have work today?"

  “We closed early,” Karen said. “You remember Lisa Lim? We found her body in the cattery today. Heart attack.”

  It always struck me as amazing just how little Barbara gave away on her face, even when given such shocking news. She probably would have made a pretty decent poker player.

  "Poor Lisa. I never imagined her going quite like that."

  "Lisa was a lovely woman — she did a whole lot for us at the sanctuary, you know," Karen replied.

  Barbara waved her off, clearly on her own train of thought. "I don't disagree with you. She was truly a kind woman, especially when it came to the care of animals, I'll give you that. I just never imagined it would happen this way, that's all. I always figured James would have been the first to go in that family, and she would have been the one to have killed him."

  Karen and I shared a look. "What exactly do you mean by that?" I asked Barbara, watching her mold and shape the candle in mid-air, her hands making precise motions about six inches away from the floating ball of wax in front of her.

  "Her husband — James Lim, he's what some people all-too-lovingly refer to as a good ol’ boy. He's been known to run around town chasing skirts. And not that I like to gossip mind you, but it's a well-known fact that he always has at least one mistress on the side. So
mething that hasn't gone under Lisa’s nose unnoticed, I’m sure. And when you have a man treating a woman like that, well, you know what they say about a woman scorned."

  "Yes, I mean I knew about all that," Karen said. "She wasn't exactly happy about their situation. I have heard her talking with Portia about it. But what does that have to do with anything?"

  The sweet-smelling candle was still frozen in midair as Barbara muttered words I could barely hear under her breath while she raised a large sticker to wrap around the candle, also floating in midair.

  "I simply find it interesting that Lisa died before her older, far less healthy-looking husband, that’s all."

  "Right. You rarely find things that interesting," Karen muttered back suspiciously, stirring her finger around in a circular motion and causing the wooden spoon sticking out of the mixture to move around in a clockwork motion inside the pot. That was so cool! I had to learn how to make things move with just my fingers. I mentally added that to my mental list of spells I needed to learn.

  "Karen thinks I'm crazy, but I have this feeling like maybe there is more to it. I just hope it isn't something terrible. I hope it wasn't someone out to really murder her,” I started.

  Karen's phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, reading what was on it while I continued.

  "I mean we don't even know what the real cause of death was. But, if it was something intentional, we already have a suspect. There was a letter in her purse written by someone named Callie Lansdowne, and she threatened Lisa in the letter. She wanted her to step down from “the board”, although I don’t know what board she was referring to.”

  "I'd hardly expect Callie Lansdowne to kill her, but she can be a right nasty little piece of work when she wants to be," Barbara said softly. "She’s almost certainly talking about the school board. Both Lisa and Callie were trustees. Callie has an older daughter, too. A few years younger than you and Karen. Some of those school board meetings she liked to reign over were made much more miserable by her presence, believe you me."

  Karen held up her phone before waving it around and sticking it in her back pocket. "That was Portia, and she wants me back at the shelter for a little bit so we can go over our finances. She's called Maxine and Anna, too. All hands-on-deck, I guess. Plus, with all the people around and all the chaos in the cattery, I want to take another look around and make sure that the animals are doing okay. They're not used to all that. I better get going."

  “Let me know if you find out anything,” I said.

  “I will, I promise. But I’m telling you, I don’t think anyone murdered Lisa. The cops are going to come out and tell us it was a heart attack, and that’s going to be that.”

  I shrugged. I knew Karen’s stance on things, but I still wasn’t convinced.

  Chapter 6

  I lounged on the couch, a sliver of sunlight filtering in through the basement suite window and warming my bare feet. Despite fall having started over a month ago, it was unseasonably cold outside – it was currently around twelve degrees. Luckily for me, I had Mondays off from Creekside Trinkets. Of course, Barbara was probably already down at the shop, taking in the small shipments of new deliveries.

  I set my empty mug down on the coffee table and pulled the fuzzy blanket Karen kept on the couch up over my shoulders, wiggling my toes in the fading patch of warmth from outside.

  Netflix had just started up the next episode of Weeds, a personal favorite of mine, when the house phone rang.

  I waited for it to ring a few more times, then realizing that whoever was on the other end of the line didn't seem to be getting the message that I was ignoring them, I groaned, not wanting to get up from the spot where I'd been warming up the past half-hour.

  "Fine, fine. I'm coming. I'm coming," I grumbled to the phone as if it could hear me, stalking over and grabbing it off the hook. "Hello?"

  "Oh thank God, you're there. I tried your cell. Why weren't you answering?" Karen's voice echoed over the phone.

  "You did?" I glanced over at the coffee table and pressed the home button on my phone, only realizing when nothing happened that it had been a while since I’d charged my phone. "Oops, sorry. It’s dead."

  "Is my mom still there?"

  "I don't think so. I think I heard her leave when I was getting in the shower. Why, is something wrong?" It hit me that there was a sort of frenzy in the way she was asking all these questions, and something stirred in my stomach. "Are you okay, Karen?"

  She took in a shaky breath that I could just make out. "No. No, I'm not. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but you were right about Lisa. She was murdered."

  I nearly dropped the phone, fumbling to hold it back up against my ear again. "What? How? What did you find out?"

  "The police just called Portia. They said a bunch of stuff about following procedure, but that the paramedics noticed some strange things when they took the body to the morgue, and so they put a rush on the autopsy and did it straight away. Apparently, they did some quick tests and found that Lisa had trace amounts of a deadly chemical in her body, and that they think she might have been poisoned. And they don’t think it was an accident. " Karen's voice wavered, and I knew there must have been tears in her eyes as she spoke.

  Already forgetting about my plan to do absolutely nothing for the day, I rushed into my bedroom, pulling the nearest pair of pants up and over my hips before sliding my feet into my favorite pair of Converses. "I'm already on my way."

  Sure enough, as soon as I finished riding my bike up to Gilly Mills, Karen was standing out front, waiting, her arms hugged around herself trying to keep it all together. I leaned the bike against the nearest tree and ran over to Karen. I could already see her face was wet with tears.

  "I'm so sorry, Karen," I said softly, pulling her in for a hug. "I didn't want to be right."

  I could feel her nodding. "I know. I still can't believe this is happening. I mean who in the world would want to kill Lisa, of all people?" Karen pulled back, shaking her head frantically. "It just doesn't make any sense! Everyone knew her, and she would do anything for anyone. She took a part in all of these different charities, not just helping to run Gilly Mills, either," she said as she jutted her thumb back toward the building. "She wasn't one of those rich stuck-up ladies around town, she was really nice. She was always thinking of other people before herself. I just can't… I just don't get it, Taylor. I really don't get it." Her shoulders slumped.

  I glanced around the front area of the property, sad to see that they didn't have their usual slew of visitors. "No animal socializing today?"

  I didn't figure it possible for Karen's face to look any more hopeless. "Portia said she doesn't think it's a good idea today. Too much is going on. And Portia, well, I think she’s still in shock," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "She hasn't moved from the front desk. She's just sitting there, staring off into space. With Lisa being the biggest individual donor to the rescue, I really don't know what's going to happen next."

  I tilted my head to the side, my mind whirring away.

  "I wish I knew what to tell you. At least there’s the ten thousand dollars you got from your dad’s life insurance that you’re donating. That’s got to take the sting out a little bit. Maybe you guys will get lucky and she'll have something in her will. Maybe she'll want a portion of her money to go towards funding those charities she loved so much, including this place," I continued, gesturing around.

  Karen turned away, wiping at her eyes. "It's not fair. And it's not even just about losing out on the money, it's about the fact that someone killed her for no reason. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill her, anyone being cold enough to take the life of someone who was so good to the community," Karen's voice trailed off. When she turned back to face me, something in her expression had shifted. "I don't know what kind of monster would have done this, but I want to find out."

  I raised an eyebrow at her. "Isn’t that what the police are for?" I asked, thinking back to what had ha
ppened last time we interfered in an investigation. Although to be fair, the thought had crossed my mind as well. I hadn’t looked in Lisa’s purse for nothing.

  "I don't care. Lisa deserves someone looking out for her, even if she's already beyond our reach."

  "I don't think that's such a good idea," a soft voice replied from behind the two of us. Portia must have snapped out of it, and was approaching us carefully, pulling her cardigan tightly around her shoulders. "We should all stay out of the investigation, and stay out of the way while the police find out who killed Lisa."

  Undeterred, Karen shrugged. "We helped out last time, didn't we Taylor?" She turned to face me expectantly.

  "That is true, though the murderer did try to kill you."

  The defiant look on Karen’s face told me that fact wasn’t something she was worried about this time. "I think we should do it. The worst-case scenario is that we actually help find the killer. We won't do anything stupid. After all, Lisa did a lot to help us here. We should return the favor."

  There was just no getting through to Karen, and as much as I hated to admit it, part of me thought she was right. Lisa sounded like she was one of the last members of a dying breed, someone who would definitely be missed by all in Rosemary Creek. I sighed, placing my hand on her thin shoulder.

  "Okay. I'm in."

  Karen gave me a quick nod, looking over at Portia, who had stepped a few feet away and wasn’t listening to us anymore. Instead, she just looked out over the valley at Rosemary Creek, her eyes staring off into space, lost in her own world once again.

  The wind whipped around us, swirling the dirt in the drive at our feet. Portia looked completely defeated.

  "I'm thinking about closing up today. Why don't you go ahead and take the afternoon off, Karen?"

  Concern creeped across Karen's face. "Are you sure you’re going to be ok here on your own?"