The Perfect Ten Boxed Set

by Dianna Love

  “Why did you go see Uncle Jordan? I’m the cop here.” He had an annoyance in his voice.

  “I wanted him to talk to you about getting this case solved.” I lied. There was really no need to tell Oscar about my dad’s death. That would open a whole new can of worms. “Didn’t he tell you why I was there?”

  “Just that you were looking around and trying to solve Ann’s murder.” He stood up and walked back to the door. “I got Ann’s autopsy back and I’m going to go over it with the council before I can share anything with you.”

  “Fine.” I shut the door behind him. I wasn’t too worried about the council, I wanted to know why Jordan didn’t tell Oscar that I wanted to know about my dad or that I had found out that my dad wasn’t with Jordan when he was shot, and that Jordan met us when we moved to Locust Grove.

  I took the two concrete shoeprints out of the pantry where I had stored them. They had the exact same ridges.

  I drummed my fingers on Darla’s journal that was sitting on the kitchen counter. There had to be something there. Something concrete for me to go on. Surely there had to be some advice. Something more than ‘follow your instincts’ because my instincts were proving to be leading me in the wrong direction.

  I went over the clues about Gerald and Petunia’s little secret with Ann; Chandra and Ann’s business partnership going up in flames and Izzy’s resentment towards Ann because she had to take her in. Not to mention all the stuff Petunia told me about my family and Oscar’s. And then there was Oscar. His lack of gathering clues, not to mention the funny dolls, were adding up to the fact that Oscar knew more about this village before we moved here than he’d let on.

  I sat on the couch and opened up the journal.

  “I don’t like the feeling of always being watched. No matter where I go or what I do, they always tell Otto. I have no friends. Only Eloise, and even she if off limits.”

  Turn over, turn over. The hands curled around the neck. No! I searched the scene for any more clues like Oscar had asked me to do, but it was difficult to stop from trying to see who the victim was. Focus, June. Focus. I didn’t care about the victim as much as I wanted a new clue to who this killer was.

  My heart sank to my stomach as the hands peeled away. The sun trickled into the depths of the water and focused on the space between the thumb and the forefinger. What is that? The sun got brighter. A mole? Man hands?

  Quickly I jumped out of bed.

  “Let’s go for a walk.” I motioned for the cat. It was time to visit Eloise. She helped Darla, surely she’d be up for helping me. I grabbed the dolls. For some reason, my intuition told me to take them.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Eloise said it was in the clearing beyond the woods.

  Mr. Prince Charming was all over going for a walk. He trotted ahead of me leading me straight toward the big rock as if he knew exactly where we were going.

  The smudging bundles were still lying next to the big rock, which I found very odd. If Gerald was accusing me of trying to murder him, I would have thought Oscar would have come up here to get the bundle of the remaining cedar.

  I set the dolls on the rock and gathered the bundles into a pile next to the rock. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but think that this was definitely negligence on Oscar’s part. This only added to my suspicions that Oscar was somehow involved.

  I glanced at the dolls. The rock illuminated around them. I grabbed them and pulled away when the heat coming off them was steaming up the air. I picked up the bundle closest to me and took the dolls off the rock. Immediately the rock went back to being a rock and the bundle smoked.

  I fanned it to put it out, only it created more smoke.

  Hiss, hiss. Mr. Prince Charming ran in the opposite direction.

  “What? I’m trying!” I yelled after him, throwing the bundle on the ground and stomping it out with my shoe. “I hope that wasn’t the cedar one.” I looked at the charred remains. The last thing I needed was for Gerald to have another reaction. “What was that?”

  Something in the opposite direction of where the cat had run moved behind a tree.

  “Is somebody there?” I yelled in the direction, but nothing moved or came forward. I shrugged it off to something else that didn’t make sense in Whispering Falls, and grabbed the dolls.

  Mewl, mewl. The cat sat on the edge of the woods dragging his tail along the grass.

  “Fine. I’ll follow you.” I looked at the pile of smudging bundles to make sure nothing else was going to catch fire, and made a mental note to grab them on my way back.

  The further we walked, the foggier it got, and the more I realized that Mr. Prince Charming had no clue where to go and my instincts weren’t giving me any hunches.

  Just when I was about to turn around, something caught my eye.

  Wow. Between a couple of trees, there was a platform built high off the ground and on the platform was a two-story house. The wooden stairs led up to a cozy wrap-around porch. I tried to see if there were any lights on, which I should’ve seen through the fog, but it didn’t appear that anyone was there.

  This had to be Eloise’s house. No wonder Darla loved it here. But why would she live all the way out here?

  I walked around the side. Lanterns hung from the tree dotted the fog and shone enough for me to see the gravel pathway. It was hard to concentrate on where it led with all the beautiful flowers that were planted on both sides. I ran my hand along the vibrant purple, green, red, orange, and yellow flowers. Wisteria vines provided a canopy leading to a clearing. It reminded me of the beautiful vine that covered the overhang of the front of A Dose of Darla.

  I blinked. I blinked harder. My heart raced as though it was going to leap right out of my chest. Rows and rows of herbs were neatly planted and proportioned perfectly. All I could see was Mr. Prince Charming’s tail waving above the rows as he darted in and out of the herbs.

  Each row had a painted wood sign with the names of the herbs that followed in line. Herbs I had never heard of. I walked in front of each row, touching each herb sign.

  “Rose petals, moonflower, mandrake root, seaweed, shrinking violet, dream dust, fairy dust, magic peanut, lucky clover, steal rose,” I whispered. “Spooky shroom?”

  What in the world were all of these used for?

  “I wondered how long it was going to take you to find me.” Eloise popped up. Her short red hair glistened from the ray of sunshine peeking through the fog. “I’m just picking some Wolfsbane. It snaps off the vine much better with the fog.” She held the orange furry plant in the air.

  Wolfsbane? I wasn’t going to question it.

  She stood up and with her arms straight out and her head tilted back, she inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. “I love foggy mornings. Well?” She cocked her head to the side with a question in her eyes.

  “Well what?” I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to apologize for trespassing or Mr. Prince Charming batting at the little creatures flying in the air. I scolded him, “Stop it!”

  “Are you ready to eat?” She gestured toward the opposite end of the garden to a gazebo with twinkling lights twisted around the wooden spindles. In the center was a table covered in a yellow cloth, and a place setting for two.

  I guess she had been expecting me.

  “How did you know I was coming?” Tension crept in my shoulders. I reached back and kneaded it before I walked toward the gazebo.

  Eloise glanced over her shoulder and laughed. There was a spark in her eye. She threw the Wolfsbane into a simmering pot and stirred it before she came to join me.

  “Let’s say that I can see into the future,” She folded her hands in front of her. “Most of the time. Plus I figured you had a lot of questions and eventually my name was going to come up.”

  I sat on the rickety chair and carefully scooted myself up to the table. There were so many different options to choose from, I didn’t know what to eat first. The assortment of scones, fruits, quiches, and a Ding Dong.

  �
��These are my favorite.” I picked up the Ding Dong and peeled back the foil wrapper.

  “Your mom told me.” She ate one too. “Your mom visited me one time after she moved and told me that you had discovered artificial foods like Ding Dongs.” She leaned forward and whispered, “Your mother loved them too.” A smile crossed her face. She knew she had just told me a big secret. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

  She was right. I did. And there was no beating around the bush.

  “Exactly how did you meet my mom?” I looked around the scones and picked out a blueberry one with a lot of powdered sugar on top.

  “Darla was an unusual one. She had agreed to live in the village when she married Otto. He wanted to serve the place where he grew up. Only she wasn’t a spiritualist, which was good because that meant she could open her own shop.” Eloise rearranged the droopy flowers in the center of the table. They sprang to life from her touch. She brushed her hands together. “Her homeopathic store wasn’t doing well, and I had just been banned from the village. It was a win situation for both of us.”

  “What do you mean?” I reached out to touch a flower sitting on the table. Eloise took it before I touched it and put it in the vase with the other vibrant flowers.

  “Darla loved homeopathic medicine. People come here to seek true remedies that make them feel better. That is what Whispering Falls provides for all those visitors. They leave feeling great.” She picked up the pink tea server and poured some in each cup. “Darla was straight homeopathic with no little extra . . .um. . .feel good.”

  “Feel good?” Darla told many of her customers at the flea market that it took a few weeks for the homeopathic cure to take effect.

  “My potions are instant. That is what needed to be sold in A Dose of Darla so we made a pact. She could use my potions to help in her remedies in exchange to visit me. The only person who knew about it was Izzy. She knew Darla’s cures had gotten a little extra added in and knew Darla didn’t do it on her own.”

  “And in the end, you two became best friends?” It made a lot of sense. “The recipe book that she used is yours?”

  “It is. When your father was murdered, she had to leave the village for her safety. She had you to raise so I gave her my book.” She looked out into her garden. “I haven’t had any friends since I was banned.”

  It was still hard for me to swallow that my father had been murdered.

  “Here, have a few berries.” She shoved the bowl in my face.

  “According to some of the spiritualists. . .”

  She wasn’t going to answer that, so I filed it in the back of my head and continued with my questions she might answer. “Why were you banned?”

  Her eyes stared at me. I tried not to give a reaction. “I’m from a village out west that allows inter-spiritual relationships. Very common. They found out that I was mixed and told me I couldn’t live there so I created my own little world here.” Her hands swept in front of her.

  “So you aren’t a full-spiritualist?” This whole other world was something I only thought lived in children’s stories.

  “I’m a Fairiwick.” She held her hands together and blew across them. Golden sprinkles filled the air and floated down, covering the ground as daisies. “I’m part fairy, part spiritualist. My mother was a fairy, my father was a homeopathic potion maker.”

  “I. . .” I struggled to understand what she was saying.

  “Really my dad was part Warlock part potion maker, but in my village we all were sorta like. . .” she hesitated and then walked over to the cauldron. Slowly she mixed the bubbling mixture with the paddle. Green smoke hovered over the golden pot. She continued, “A mix of things. And that is something Whispering Falls doesn’t allow.”

  “That isn’t right.” Once I got my name cleared, I was going to go in front of the council and ask them about this.

  “It might not be right. But is anything?” She put her hand in the air. A little mound of dust formed on her hand. She tossed it in the cauldron. Her cloak swished as she made her way back to her seat. “How did you figure out you have your dad’s talent?”

  “I had never questioned what he had done. I just assumed he was a cop all his life. My best friend, Oscar Park, told me about Whispering Falls. And Izzy found me.” I knew not to listen to Oscar. I shook my head. “I should’ve stayed in Locust Grove.”

  Her chair went crashing to the floor when she stood up. “Did you say Oscar Park?”

  I nodded. “Yes, he’s the new police officer of Whispering Falls.”

  Nervously she walked down the gazebo steps. She turned around when she reached the bottom one. “It was good chatting with you. We must do it again.” She glided on the gravel path toward her house.

  “Wait!” I ran behind her trying to catch up. There were so many more questions I needed answered. When I reached the bottom steps of her porch, I took the dolls out of my waistband. I held one in each hand and held them high above my head. “What are these?”

  Slowly she turned around and her eyes darted back and forth between my hands. She darted down the steps just as a clap of thunder echoed throughout the woods and into the crystal clear blue sky.

  I fell to the ground and laid in fetal position. “Please don’t kill me,” I begged.

  Damn! I’ve got to stop listening to my intuition or I wouldn’t be begging for my life.

  “Where did you get these?” She snapped them out of my hands. “Whose voodoo dolls are these?” Her shadow towered over me.

  “You aren’t going to kill me are you?” I looked up.

  “No, get up.” She held the dolls in one hand and stuck out the other. I took it and she helped me up. “I haven’t seen voodoo dolls in a long time. Especially ones that have pins stuck in them and are personalized.”

  She pointed to the yarned thread on the back of the one doll that looked like a woman. It was a makeshift “D.”

  “Darla?” I questioned hoping I was wrong. Had Oscar really hated my family that much?

  “I’m afraid so. I’m afraid she was murdered.” A single tear fell down Eloise’s cheek. “Did you get this from Oscar Park?” Her voice was low and steady.

  “I found them under his bed.”

  “I’m Oscar’s aunt. I moved here to find him. I was afraid this was going to happen.” Her mouth turned down. “My sister was married to Oscar’s father. She was a witch. I heard they were moving here, and then they disappeared.”

  “What about Uncle Jordan?”

  “Who is Jordan?” She pulled back, looking confused. “I don’t have a brother.”

  “Oscar lived in Locust Grove and was raised by his Uncle Jordan. Oscar told me that his parents were moving here and were killed in a car accident.” I had to get some answers from Jordan. I was beginning to get a craving for lasagna. “That’s when he went to live with his Uncle Jordan.”

  “I’ve spent all my life looking for Oscar. We couldn’t find him.” She held the dolls in her hands, she rubbed them. “I was afraid of this. If a child was raised by a non-spiritualist, most of the kids become angry and don’t understand their powers. Oscar was in line to become a sorcerer.” She took the pins out of the doll. “I’m afraid these are a sign of an evil sorcerer.”

  She plopped down on the step and I sat next to her.

  “A murder in the village is just like an evil spirit.” She put her head in her hands.

  “Did you say evil spirit?” Madame Torres popped into my head. Was Oscar who she was talking about? There was no way Oscar knew that he was a sorcerer or even spiritual.

  Eloise nodded. The fear was deep-set in her eyes.

  “Why would Oscar want to hurt me or anyone else in the village?” Did Oscar sit in his room and poke holes in the dolls? What did have against Darla? None of this made sense. Hell, for that matter, nothing in this entire spiritual village made sense.

  “Am I in trouble?” I spent the next hour telling her about my nightmares and how Oscar knew everything about me. I tol
d her about all my suspicions about who had motives to kill Ann and what the evidence was. That included Gerald, Petunia, Izzy, and even Oscar.

  She gave a tilted smile, leaving room for the worry lines that had formed around her eyes. “Go about your business for now. I need to cleanse your house. I will have to wait until the first break of dawn. People can’t see me then.”

  “Is that why you were cleansing the streets in the early morning?” I recalled seeing her and Izzy.

  “Yes.” Slowly she ascended up her steps. She turned back around and pointed toward my wrist. “Never take that off.”

  “Don’t worry.” I twirled the bracelet around my wrist. Mr. Prince Charming did figure eights around my ankles. “I need all the protection I can get.”

  It was time for my lasagna dinner. There were questions I needed answered and I wasn’t going to ask Oscar.

  Chapter Twenty

  I made it out of the woods without getting lost or killed. Mr. Prince Charming was nowhere to be found. I circled around the big rock to pick up the bundles, but they were gone. I could’ve sworn I left them next to the rock. There was no time to investigate where the bundles had gone. They probably blew away.

  Once I reached the house, I called Jordan and told him I’d be there at six, which gave me plenty of time to go visit Izzy.

  Mystic Lights was busy and Izzy waved, motioning me to her office in the back of the shop. She’d be back when she was finished.

  I sat in the chair in front of her desk. There was a faint glow coming through the crack on the bottom of the door. Squeak, the chair groaned as I leaned back and looked into the shop. The glow was calling me, or so my intuition said, or maybe curiosity, but I wanted to make sure that Izzy was busy and wouldn’t notice me snooping around. After all, I had to figure out who killed Ann, because I knew it wasn’t me.

  I tiptoed over to the closet and slowly turned the knob. As the door opened, the glow got brighter. And once my eyes adjusted, the crystal ball illuminated with all yellow, red, orange, and purple lines. The lines parted and a face appeared. The eyes were gaunt, the lips were rosy red, and the skin was pale.