Murder Ghost Foul: The Complete Mystic Springs Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series

by Mona Marple

  And with that, Lizette fainted, her head colliding with a corner of a table on the way down. The blood, only a trickle at first, quickly increased.

  “For curse’s sake,” Violet muttered, and dashed across the room to Lizette, who lay, eyes closed, as if asleep. Crystal and I followed. “Who knows First Aid?”

  “Oh no,” I groaned, as I realised who the school’s First Aider was.

  “Me,” came the voice from behind, and we parted ways to allow Helen Sculley to take a look. She winced at the sight of the blood - perhaps not a great first sign from the only medic on hand - and then bent down and placed two fingers on the groove of Lizette’s right forearm. We all waited, until at least five minutes had passed, and I saw Helen’s shoulders slump downwards. “She’s dead.”

  Crystal wide-eyed me at the brutality of Helen’s words, but really there was nobody to soften the news for. Nobody who was in the building and alive cared at all about Lizette Anderson-Pugh, and I wasn’t even sure the other dead body had cared that much when living.

  “Two dead bodies? What a night!” A random drunk in a dickie bow jeered as he stumbled past.

  “The Magick Squad are going to have a fit,” I said with an eye roll. One dead body would be a paperwork nightmare for them. Two, at the same event? They’d be looking at weeks of overtime. And if there was one thing the Magick Squad hated, it was overtime.

  “The Magick Squad? Forget them. This will be the end of Winifred’s!” Crystal exclaimed.

  “What?” Helen asked, her face blanched of colour.

  “They’ll shut the place down,” Crystal said with a shrug. “Let’s be honest, as awful as the Academy deal was, it was the only thing giving the old place a future. The authorities are gonna jump all over these bodies - ouch, excuse that mental image! - as an excuse to close the school. Good job we’ve had this last get together, hey?”

  Crystal grinned at me, completely unaware of the stunned silence that surrounded her. As shallow as she might seem, she knew enough people in high places to mean the things she gossiped about were legit. If Crystal had heard that the authorities were ready to close the school, it was true.

  Wow.

  “Let’s focus,” Violet said, her voice high with emotion. It seemed as if she had about as few fond memories of the school as I did, but still - you only get to go to one magick school, and this had been ours. To see it closed forever would bring me no joy. “First, we need to cover Lizette. She deserves a little dignity. George?”

  The porter appeared by her side, the most composed of us all. If he had any surprise about seeing a dead body, or hearing that his place of employment would probably be closed down, he didn’t show it. Helen Sculley had staggered away to a chair, where she sat, head in hands.

  George busied himself clearing a table of empty wine glasses and returned to drape the red-wine stained, crumb-infested tablecloth across Lizette.

  “That’ll do,” Violet said, as George struggled to decide which body parts to leave covered. The cloth was too small to cover all of her, and he left the bottom of her gown and her heeled feet out on display. The group that had gathered around us grew bored and returned to their seats, and I looked across at Violet to see the glint in her eyes.

  “Are you thinking what I am?” I asked.

  She nodded. “It’s time to solve this case. Are you able to make our audience a little more captivated?”

  I grinned.

  That was something I could certainly do.

  25

  Violet

  I stood at the side of the stage as Ellie approached the podium. Barely a soul noticed us. Even Kathi Salt had relinquished her position and was slumped at a table, barely awake and make-up magic fading fast so she had started to look her age.

  Ellie glanced back at me and I nodded. It had to be her.

  She gazed out at the audience and then lifted her arms. A trail of green light shot out from her fingertips and snaked its way around the walls of the room, the two magic streams meeting at the very back of the room. People began to notice. A mix of surprise and fear crossed their faces as they realised they were literally locked in a magic circle.

  A captive audience, indeed.

  “What the…?” One person exclaimed. “What’s the meaning of this?”

  “We’ll be addressing you all now and need your full attention,” I said, as I joined Ellie in the centre of the stage.

  “Has someone else died?” A young woman with lilac hair asked.

  “Thank you for your co-operation tonight,” I said. “None of us came here expecting to be the real life audience of a murder mystery night. Or did we?”

  The question made several people shift their body language.

  “There’s no shortage of people who had reason to want Sid Snipe dead, is there?” I asked. I heard the helicopter overhead and nodded to Ellie, who flexed her fingers and increased the strength of her spell.

  “He was leading the school toward disaster, wasn’t he, Kathi?” I said. I walked down the stage steps and across the room to her. She swallowed and frantically looked around the room. “The answer isn’t over there. Sid Snipe was making himself incredibly unpopular, wasn’t he?”

  “Well, of course he was!” She said, her voice walking a tightrope with every word.

  “And you took the chance to position yourself as his replacement, didn’t you?”

  “I’d be the most logical replacement, I guess, if anything happened to him.”

  “If anything happened to him? He’s been stabbed to death, Kathi! And you were ready to jump into his shoes before his blood’s dried.”

  “The school…”

  “Go on,” I encouraged.

  “The school must be protected. It needs strong leadership at such a time.”

  “Strong leadership you were fortunately here to provide.”

  “I’m an ambitious woman, there’s no crime in that!”

  “No, of course not,” I agreed. “But it’s a crime to kill your superior so you can take their job.”

  “Is that what happened?” A man in the audience asked. “This is why women should be at home, not out working. Doesn’t your husband earn enough, Ms Salt?”

  “Shut up, Alfred,” said the stunning brunette sat next to the man. She then picked up her diamond clutch bag and whacked him around the head with it, to an enormous cheer from most of the audience.

  The man winced and stroked his injured head, although the biggest damage was clearly to his ego.

  “I didn’t hurt Sid,” Kathi protested.

  “I know,” I said, as I walked away from her and glanced at the occupants of each table in turn. Ellie’s magic streams gave everyone a slightly ghoulish tint. “Ellie and I realised quickly that we had three clues to help us solve the case. The lipstick, we originally felt was yours Ms Salt, but you’re a red lip woman.”

  “Always,” Kathi said as she sat straighter in her chair.

  “And the next clue was obviously not yours,” I said as I meandered my way across the room to Bryan Derby. “A distinctive skull pen left at the scene. Not too difficult to work out that the pen was yours, Mr Derby.”

  “I accept that the pen was indeed mine, and I’ve explained how it came to be in there,” he said as his ghost army gathered at either side of him.

  “Ah, yes. Mr Derby accepts that he used his undead to terrify Sid Snipe into signing his way out of the Academy deal,” I said as I gave him a stern gaze. “What a wonderful way to treat a colleague.”

  And yet several people in the audience began to clap.

  “Did your spirits go too far, Mr Derby? Did you find yourself unable to control them once they’d got a taste for terrorising Mr Snipe?”

  “Absolutely not,” Mr Derby said. “I’ll remind you that I’m the leading authority on necromancy, Ms Warren. I am always in perfect control.”

  A gust of wind came through the room and I realised there wasn’t much time left. The main door of the school had been opened. Compa
ny would find us soon.

  I left Bryan Derby and continued walking. My pace quickened as I saw Ellie’s magic streams begin to falter. The spell would be exhausting her. Soon, she would collapse.

  “So we have a pen, left by the scene. A lipstick, left by the scene. A very careless killer, or perhaps someone so blasé that they really didn’t try to hide their tracks.”

  “You mentioned three clues,” Bryan Derby said.

  “The third? A red herring. They say no case is complete without one. It was a cat hair. It turns out that even the school’s feline mascot wanted to look at Mr Snipe’s body and celebrate his death. And that got us thinking, about the people who should have been distressed by the news.”

  “His wife?” Mr Derby said.

  The doorhandle to the room squeaked as it was turned, but the door was locked. I turned to look at Ellie just as a final stream of magic burst from her fingertips.

  “It’s okay,” I reassured her, as her ashen face grimaced. She could do no more to protect me from this crowd - from the killer amongst them.

  “Lizette Anderson-Pugh was distressed by the news. She was awkward, and out of her depth, but why wouldn’t she be? She’d never attended a Winifred’s event before.”

  The room shook under the pressure of a huge bang against the door.

  “I thought at first that Winifred’s was moving with the times, trying to be more inclusive of partners. But no other member of staff brought a plus one. Not even you, Ms Sculley, and your office walls are lined with photographs of your husband.”

  “We can’t all have the benefits the headmaster received,” Kathi Salt muttered.

  “Quite,” I said. “You’ve made that resentment very clear. The grand office, the status, the salary. But bringing a plus one to a school event? That was no benefit to Mr Snipe. Lizette’s absence from school the benefit to him, a benefit that allowed his affair.”

  I looked across at Helen Sculley sharply. She at least had the courtesy to blush.

  “I don’t see the relevance of my personal business,” she said. “I made a mistake. My head was turned by a man in a powerful position.”

  “I may have believed that at one time,” I said. “Until a wise friend reminded me that every relationship has one party more committed than the other. It was Sid Snipe who had his head turned, even naming the school after you. Isn’t that right, Helen Winifred Sculley?”

  A collective gasp took over the audience as another thundering bang came against the door. It occurred to me that no ordinary lock was keeping it closed.

  “Yes, that’s correct,” Helen admitted.

  “Sid loved you. Certainly more than he ever loved his wife. I’m sure you had some fondness for him… but the choice for you wasn’t him or your husband. It was him or the school.”

  “Nonsense,” Helen said. “My professional judgement was never affected.”

  “Oh, that’s exactly what I mean,” I agreed.

  “You said it yourself,” Ellie added, as she walked across the room towards the main doors. “Whoever killed him did everyone a favour.”

  “I said that in the heat of the moment,” Helen said.

  “He was ruining the school,” I said.

  Ellie reached the doors and closed her eyes, placed her open palms against the door and began to mutter a spell under her breath.

  “Your loyalty was to the school, not the man,” I said, as Ellie’s magic began to work on removing the lock spell from the doors. “You killed him to save the school.”

  Helen threw her head back and let out a laugh. “Is that it? Your little theory?”

  “You invited Lizette so you could frame her. You managed to steal her lipstick. You left it there after you killed Sid. And you killed him like a scorned woman would - with a knife in his back. The little scene between you and Lizette was all part of the plan, too. She had to confront you about the affair, make a scene, just to make her motive obvious.”

  Helen began to clap. Slowly, sarcastically, with a smirk across her face. “And what are you going to do now, arrest me? Please, Violet. This has been fun, but I think I’ll be going.”

  Helen turned and began to walk away from me as the doors finally burst open.

  The Magick Squad burst into the room in riot gear, weapons drawn, and ordered everyone to the floor. I ducked without thinking, until my back began to wince. I’d regret that dive in the morning.

  “Helen Winifred Sculley, you’re under arrest in relation to money laundering, fraud and first degree murder,” a familiar voice came. I heard the chinks of handcuffs and braved a glance across at what was happening.

  I gasped as Rex, the boat hand, checked the cuffs and then pushed Helen towards a riot officer. “Take her away, lads.”

  A sobbing Helen was lead out of the room and I staggered to my feet.

  “Rex?”

  “Good work tonight, Violet,” he said with a crooked smile.

  “You heard? You’re with the…”

  “I’ve been undercover for years. This has been the biggest investigation into money laundering the Squad’s ever had. The school’s never made enough to keep it going, so we were always suspicious. We’ve suspected for a long time that Helen Sculley was masterminding it all, using Sid Snipe as a puppet. I’m pretty sure he had no idea. The room’s bugged, I was listening to it all.”

  “What? Why didn’t you come over earlier?”

  He flashed me a grin and for a moment, I saw his features transform. My stomach flipped as he winked at me. It was a full moon, after all.

  “You’d got it in hand,” he said, then leered towards me in a way that I really should have found unappealing. “Anyway, I prefer to work nights, if you get my drift.”

  “Violet, we should go,” Ellie said. She tugged on the material of my gown.

  “You go,” I heard myself say. “I won’t be long.”

  Rex licked his lips and let out a wicked laugh.

  26

  Ellie

  After solving Sid Snipe’s murder and discovering the criminal ring that Helen Sculley was using to prop up the school financially, returning to my regular life and Screamin’ Beans Coffee House could have seemed dull. In reality, it was great to be back.

  As I arrived to open the coffee house the morning after the school reunion, I found Violet waiting for me.

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “You feel as rough as you look?”

  “Wow, thanks,” she croaked. “I need a strong coffee.”

  I pulled her in for a hug, which surprised us both. She stiffened in my arms and then relaxed. “I can’t believe what happened.”

  “I knew you could do it,” Violet said, as I unlocked the door and led us inside. Godiva snored on one of the comfiest chairs. “That magic from your fingertips was marvellous!”

  “I’ve never done anything like that before,” I admitted.

  “You’re not the only one who tried new things last night,” Violet said as a flush spread across her cheeks.

  “Americano?” I asked, unsure how much detail I wanted about whatever had happened after I’d left with Crystal.

  Violet nodded. “I can see the appeal of a place like this. How’s business?”

  I shrugged. “It’s steady. I’ve actually just taken someone on part-time.”

  “I might throw my name in the ring if you need anyone else, just for a few hours,” she said.

  “Seriously?”

  “Why not? It would give me an excuse to leave the house sometimes.”

  “Well, yeah, it’s not like you need the money,” I said, thinking of Violet’s huge waterfront house and the prices her art pieces sold for.

  “Life’s about more than money,” Violet said, in that easy way that people with money can. “Honestly, Ellie, the most valuable things in life are free. Friendship, laughter, good coffee.”

  I widened my eyes. “And that’ll be three dollars.”

  Violet laughed and handed a ten dollar bill across the counter to me. “Get y
ourself one and sit down with me, we have a lot to catch up on.”

  I pushed the money back to her and made myself a drink. Curled into a comfortable seat near the window, I allowed myself to consider how much I’d achieved. Opening my own coffee shop, confronting a murderer, chatting to a hot guy I’d probably never see again. Maybe I should have more confidence in myself.

  “Helen Sculley admitted it all,” Violet said.

  “Really?”

  “Turns out there are some people in prison she’d rather not meet.”

  “So she’s doing a plea deal? She can’t avoid jail time, surely?”

  “Oh no, she’ll be inside for a long time, but she’s given up the names of the others involved in the money laundering and in return she’ll get a cell mate who won’t skin her alive.”

  I laughed.

  “No, seriously, that’s what these people do. It’s their MO. You upset them, they skin you.”

  “Geeze… she was mixing with a rough crowd,” I said as my stomach churned. “I guess Kathi Salt will be the new principal?”

  Violet shrugged. “I think your friend Crystal was right. This might be the end of Winifred’s.”

  The mention of Crystal made me glance at my watch. Typical. Trust her to be late on her first day of work. “You didn’t even get your Golden Sceptre!”

  “Oh, hello there,” Violet murmured as the door bell announced someone arriving.

  Expecting it to be Crystal, I rolled my eyes. “What time do you call this?”

  “Erm… a quarter after eight?” Came the reply. A delicious voice like velvet.

  I turned and saw him and my stomach flipped.

  “Kraspian?” I managed, although I could hardly hear my own voice over the hammering of my heart beat. “What can I get you?”

  He cocked his head and offered me a smile, revealing the dimple in his cheek. Be still my heart. “With everything that happened last night, I didn’t get chance to say bye. You were amazing, by the way.”