“As you know,” she opened her hands in a gentle way toward the meeting space to address the attendees. The wind whipped and the leaves in the trees rustled back and forth. Petunia didn’t continue until the noise was clear, but that wasn’t going to happen until all of the animals surrounding us had circled the Gathering Rock.
Deer, squirrels, birds, and even moose had formed their own little meeting on the outskirts of ours.
Ahem, Petunia cleared her throat. “As you know,” she started again, “I am the spiritualist that can talk to animals. By the looks of things, they think I have something to tell them.”
“Smiik, kiic, triic.” Petunia threw her head back and made the worst sounding noise I had ever heard, causing the animals to scatter.
Everyone stared at the animals scurrying back to their homes in the woods that set just beyond the Gathering Rock. Again, we waited for the rusting leaves and hoof noises to stop before she continued.
“I’m sorry. I had to let them know it was a human meeting, not an animal one.” Petunia’s eyes sparkled as she talked about her gift, making me a little envious of her talent when all I could do was throw a few ingredients together. “A couple of months ago, several exotic animals showed up at Glorybee. None of them can talk to me so we can safely say they are not souls. Through endless searching with no luck, I have tried to find out where they have come from.”
As she told the community her story, which we all already knew, I carefully watched the Karima sisters. Patience kept nudging Constance with her chubby elbow while Constance continually shushed her silently with her hands.
“Anyway, there is this crazy ostrich that doesn’t like to be around the other animals.” Petunia turned toward me and the other council members. Softly she spoke, “I thought the ostrich was stolen. But I was quite wrong. The ostrich does not like being at Glorybee but loves Two Sisters and A Funeral. Patience Karima takes good care of the ostrich and will take full responsibility until I find the rightful owners.”
I slammed down the gavel before me. I had never used a gavel, but I have seen in many movies where the judge used one to make the audience come to order. Even though the meeting audience wasn’t rowdy, I wanted to slam the gavel to make a motion to throw out the claim that Patience Karima had stolen the ostrich.
Bang, bang, bang. I secretly liked the feeling of the power behind that small hammer.
“You can stop the banging now.” Gerald reached over and touched my arm. “You have everyone’s attention.”
“Oh.” I giggled and stood back up. “Thank you Petunia for that bit of insight. We can move on to the next topic if that’s okay.”
Patience nodded her head so fast, I thought it was going to bounce right off her jolly shoulders. There was a smile planted across her face that puffed out her rosy cheeks.
“First, I’d like to officially welcome Ophelia Biblio to Whispering Falls.” I pointed the gavel in her direction, but she was gone. “Ms. Biblio?” I shouted over the crowd that had now turned their backs on me and were looking around for her.
“It looks like she didn’t hang around for the meeting.” Izzy stood up. “I haven’t seen her or Alexelrod Primrose for a while now.”
“That’s odd.” Gerald cleared his throat. “I thought Alexelrod would be front and center after the little stunt he pulled today.”
I glanced over at Gerald who didn’t look up at me. I leaned his way and whispered, “What did his leaves say?”
“He’s dead!” A woman’s voice screamed from Main Street, echoing all the way up to the Gathering Rock. “Help! He’s dead! Alexelrod Primrose is dead!”
Chapter Eleven
“Clear the way.” Officer Gandolf ordered as he cleared a path on the steps of Ever After Books where Alexelrod Primrose was laying stone dead. This time Officer Gandolf wasn’t as gentle as he yelled in his baritone voice, “Clear the way!”
Sirens blared as the Two Sisters and a Funeral hearse roared down Main Street. The crowd scattered like flies trying to get out of its way. Constance Karima didn’t care who she ran over because it would be a score for her. Just another fresh body to bury and keep her in business.
“Out of the way! Fresh body!” Patience had her head stuck out the window shouting to the crowd, the ostrich’s head stuck right out there beside hers.
The hearse came to a roaring stop. Constance jumped out and flung open the back door to retrieve the gurney.
Patience and the beady-eyed bird stood next to her. Patience repeated, “Umm hmm, fresh body!”
The gurney clicked once it hit the ground.
My heart sank when I realized that Alexelrod really was dead. Bella, Petunia, Faith, Raven, Izzy and I stood down the sidewalk with our heads bowed, not a word spoken between us.
“I can’t believe I found him.” Tears dripped down both sides of Faith’s face.
My gut told me this was not an accident, but I wanted to believe otherwise until something was confirmed.
“Something isn’t right around here.” Chandra Shango walked up, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “Do you think he is really dead?”
“By the looks of it, yes.” Izzy nodded toward the bookstore. “He isn’t moving.”
“He was such a nice guy. Always so helpful when I was looking to open Wicked Good and needed a great space.” Raven shook her head.
Sadness laid heavy on all of our hearts…all except for two. The Karima sisters, obviously.
“Coming through!” Constance barreled through the crowd in front of Ever After Books, slamming the gurney into the gate like a battering ram. The ostrich ran right behind. The gate flew. Patience didn’t miss a beat when the gate flung back and hit her in the booty.
I rolled up on my toes to see above the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle, only to roll back down when my intuition told me that someone or something was watching me. My eyes gazed up the side of the building and stopped when I saw the curtain from the window on the second floor move slightly. Someone was looking down at the commotion and I couldn’t help but think it was Ophelia, only I couldn’t make out if it was or not.
The curtains closed when the person saw me looking up. My attention was then turned back to Ever After Books where Gandolf was talking to one very upset Faith Mortimer. Though this was out of my jurisdiction and had nothing to do with being Village President, I still made my way up to where the Karima sisters had already thrown a sheet over poor ole Alexelrod’s body.
The ostrich pecked at the sheet with its beak. Patience tried to shoo him away, but he started pecking at her. It would have been a comical scene if Alexelrod wasn’t lying there dead.
I still couldn’t believe he was dead. My eyes filled with tears when I caught sight of his long black trench coat. He was a good man and a good realtor.
“Looks like we are going to have to figure out what killed him, sister.” Constance Karima pulled back the white sheet. Her face scrunched up in scowl. “Look at that ear.”
I tried to get a quick look, but Patience stepped in the way, causing my eye to venture down to her feet. She stood on the step leading up to the shop, right next to the flowerbed where Ophelia had neatly planted two berry bushes and some rainbow daisies. It wasn’t the flowerbed or the daisies that caught my eye. It was the book that was lying under a bush. Its corner was barely visible to the naked eye.
“Is there anything I can do?” I walked between the Karima sisters and put my arms around both of them. I didn’t want to mention that it was probably a heart attack from the stress of him trying to stop Ophelia from opening Ever After Books this morning.
Constance shrugged me off. “What is wrong with you June Heal? This here is a murder investigation, in case you can’t tell.”
“Murder?” I looked around to make sure no one was looking as I stuck my toe behind me and gently nudged the corner of the book a little further under the bush. “Aren’t you taking this murder thing a little too far? We don’t want to alarm the citizens that there may be
a killer on the run.”
I knew one should never assume someone was murdered and also not to freak out an entire community. Besides, Alexelrod was a good man. Who would want him dead?
The curtain in the window swung open, sending my eyes upward. There was no one there.
“Look here.” She pulled back the sheet, and as sure as I was standing there, Alexelrod Primrose had indeed met his maker. She pointed to the swollen red marks just below his ear lobe on his neck. “It looks like he got a bug bite and died. It could happen.” Her brows lifted, and her neck skin waddled as she nodded.
“Hmm…” I looked closer at the two spots. There was no way that they could tell if that was an insect bite. “It looks like zits to me.” Not that I was making light of the situation, but the Karima sisters had to be stopped from speculating out loud.
The crowd was already whispering about a murderer on the loose. I even heard the words serial killer from a few audible whispers.
“Zits.” Patience cackled, abruptly stopping when Constance shot her the look.
“Grown men don’t have acne.” Constance lifted the gurney and without warning, she rushed Alexelrod’s body to the hearse.
“Yes they do,” I whispered under my breath. I had several clients who had adult acne, but wasn’t going to discuss it further with Constance. Besides, she was already knocking people out of the way with the gurney. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Alexelrod. He wouldn’t want the village to see his lifeless body thumping and bumping down the sidewalk.
Everyone was too busy watching the Karimas and their circus act to see me reach down and pick the book up out of the bushes. I wiped the dust off the front covers.
“Mysteries and Magical Spells,” I sucked in air and tucked the book up under the cloak I still had on from the council meeting when someone called my name.
“What did you say?” Gandolf walked over and stood in the spot where Alexelrod’s dead body had been, sending chills up my legs.
“I just can’t believe it.” I shook my head playing off the little treasure lying just behind the cloak. “He was such a nice man. I really can’t believe he is gone.”
“Well, if this is murder, we are going to have to keep it hush hush within our community.” He cast down his eyes. “I’m going to have to expect nothing less than full cooperation from the council.”
“Nothing less,” I assured him. I shifted my body to my left side to help juggle the book in a comfortable position.
I tried to shoo the pesky ostrich away as he continued to jab his pointy bill at my feet.
Gandolf’s curious eyes looked at the bird, and he muttered, “Crazy thing.”
The bird popped his head up. There was something shiny sticking out of his mouth.
“What in the world?” Gandolf put his hand out. The bird dropped the object into Gandolf’s hand. He held it up to the sunlight to get a better look.
Evidently that wasn’t good enough. He pulled a small pair of reading sunglasses from the front pocket of his Whispering Falls uniform and put them on. He pulled the object closer to his eyes. Putting it to his nose, he took in a big whiff.
My heart stopped when I got a good look at it. “Is that a dart?” I tried to steady my shaking hands and voice.
The Karima sisters and I stood still; the crowd was silent. Everyone waited to see what Officer Gandolf had to say. The bird even stood still like he was a proud peacock.
“Yes! It’s a poison dart and it’s filled with poison!” He lifted the dart in the air for the gathered crowd to see. A collective gasp ripped through the crowd.
Constance Karima whipped out a clear baggie with the word evidence written in big black bold letters across it. This was right up her alley.
“Are you sure?” I tapped Gandolf’s forearm. There was no reason to alarm anyone if it wasn’t truly murder.
The ostrich pranced back and forth. It’s head jabbed into the bushes coming back up with another dart.
“Positive,” Gandolf confirmed when the bird gave him the second dart. “Two holes. Two darts. And blood.” He pointed to a little spackle of blood on the sidewalk.
“So much for keeping it under wraps,” I murmured under my breath.
The crowd was no longer in a hushed whisper. They were more like a gang of gaggling geese, all taking at once.
Patience Karima took the yellow crime tape and not only draped it across the Ever After Books front door, but looped it around every inch of the outside of the shop. Ever After Books was now a full-on crime scene.
Chapter Twelve
On my way into the shop the next morning, I couldn’t help but notice how thick the fog was that made a quilt-like blanket over the entire community. Not only was the village in mourning, so was the land.
Alexelrod was the realtor to many spiritualist communities and traveled all over. He was liked by so many people.
If he had been murdered, as Gandolf believed, it could take months to visit all of those communities and interview potential suspects or witnesses. Unfortunately, murder wasn’t good for a business community. Who would want to come to shop where there might be a murderer on the loose?
Though Gandolf was in charge, I still felt it was my duty to do a little investigating myself, only to see what I came up with.
There was a lot that I needed to do today, which was great because it would make my day go faster, and I was really looking forward to my Chinese takeout date with Oscar tonight.
I made a quick to-do list, but it became a to-see list before I headed off to work. Murderer or not, the village shops still had to open for business.
I glanced at my list one more time before I put it in my purse. Gerald and Raven were at the top. Each of them had seen something and neither wanted to tell.
I flung my bag over my shoulder and headed down the hill. Mr. Prince Charming darted in and out of the fog like he was chasing a string. The fog parted as he ran, leaving me a good path to see my way.
“Good fairy god-cat!” I yelled after him.
The fog might detour some of the tourists from coming into town, which would be fine with me since I had to get through my to-see list. I also wanted to keep working on a cure for Oscar. Plus I still had the “Mysteries and Magical Spells” book I had found outside of Ever After Books to thumb through before I gave it back to Ophelia.
Just as I was about to unlock the gate of A Charming Cure, I heard a little scuffle on the other side of the street, but couldn’t see through the fog.
“June.” Someone called out.
Instantly, a small circle of fog lifted and Ophelia was standing in the center.
“Hurry.” Her eyes glowed red in a worrisome sort of way. She waved faster. “Now.”
There was a purple orb floating to the right side of the gate in front of Ever After. The fog lifted with each step she took until she leapt into the orb, sending a swirl of gold like one of those childhood kaleidoscopes.
“Come on June.” Ophelia’s voice echoed into the air.
Without giving it much thought, I jumped through the small purple opening when the gold stopped spinning, landing right smack dab into what looked to be a bookstore. I quickly ducked when a book with wings flew right over my head.
“Oh my…” My mouth dropped when the book soared through the air and landed on a bookshelf right before another one took off, and then another, and another. It was like I was in the movie Birds, but it should be titled Books.
“As you can see,” Ophelia’s high-pitched voice was even higher. She lifted her hands in the air. “We have had a disturbance today and we don’t do well with that.”
“What disturbance and what kind of shop is this?” I was beginning to wonder if Alexelrod was right. Ever After Books didn’t belong in Whispering Falls. Or if I would have listened to him, he might be alive today.
The books swirled, dipped, and dove throughout the colorful shop. The wings of the books resembled the petals on the daisies in the flowerbed outside of the shop. There
was a lamppost at the beginning of each aisle, filled with books.
In each corner of the store were big comfy couches with large fluffy pillows and baskets of snuggly blankets in all sorts of bright colors.
“It’s my bookshop.” She tossed her curls behind her head and walked ahead of me. “It’s full of magic when no one who isn’t spiritual is here.”
I followed her, making sure to keep an eye out for the flying books.
“And I’m afraid it isn’t looking too good for me or Ever After with that dreadful man found dead on my steps.” She stopped, turned, and drummed her fingers. Her eyes narrowed and her back became ramrod straight. “Am I right?”
“Is this what you wanted to see me about?” I ducked, barely missing having my head detached.
“It is.” She gestured for me to follow her. Her long black nails scraped the air.
“Alexelrod was hardly dreadful.” I wanted to make sure that I made that clear with her, even though I was sure his dying wish was to run Ever After Books out of Whispering Falls. “You didn’t know him. He was kind, thoughtful and very helpful to our community. It is I who should be questioning the reasons he didn’t want your bookstore to open.”
We proceeded to the back of the shop and through a door that opened up into Ophelia’s office space, which wasn’t much different than the actual shop. There were floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books and a long black desk in the middle of the room.
“I have no idea why he didn’t like me.” She stopped in front of one of the bookshelves. “He is the one who came to my spiritual village after I asked for a realtor and he showed me this place. Then I moved and he went all crazy. Then he was murdered.”
“Really?” Something just wasn’t adding up.
“Yes,” she said in a high-pitch voice. Her curls swayed back and forth as she nodded. “There are records of the entire transaction. But one of my books is missing and that is a key piece of evidence to his murder.”
“You have thousands of books here.” I pointed in the direction of the shop floor. “How could you possibly know that you are missing a book?”
A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) Page 6
