Witch Some Win Some (Witch of Mintwood Book 2)

by Addison Creek

  “She said she did it to protect Kayla, but wouldn’t you just ask Kayla what had happened?” said Charlie.

  “Maybe she would have, except that Kayla was missing,” said Hansen.

  Charlie bit her lower lip, “Then she must not have thought Kayla made off with the money. But it was a long time ago, so the timeline for her and for us might be a little fuzzy at this point.”

  “We can talk more about it, maybe over dinner sometime?” said Hansen.

  “I don’t know that we need to justify the dinner. Emailing will probably suffice, at least until I hear from Mary,” said Charlie, still lost in thought.

  I noticed as we got into the Beetle that Hansen looked a little bemused. Charlie continued on the topic of Mrs. Luke as we drove home, saying at one point, “I can’t believe she was so dense as to assume that money had gone missing because of a mistake. I still think she’s covering for someone, maybe herself or maybe somebody else. What do you think?”

  Funny she should bring up people being dense.

  “I think Hansen Gregory just asked you to dinner and you shot him down like whoa,” I said.

  “He wanted to discuss the case,” said Charlie.

  “He wanted to have dinner with you,” I said. “If you happened to discuss the case, great, if you happened to discuss date two, a walk on the beach under the moonlight, all the better.”

  “You’re ridiculous. You would have been invited too,” said Charlie. “Really, I think you’re reading too much into it.”

  “Says the reporter,” I muttered.

  I did agreed with Charlie that there was still something fishy about Mrs. Luke, though. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, but I wasn’t ready to rule her out as a suspect. That left only one thing to do, and I felt certain Paws wasn’t going to like it.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  There are few things less pleasant than being cornered by a group of ghosts. Of course, I didn’t realize this until I was. Cornered, that is.

  I was in my room at the farmhouse when I noticed how hard the wind was blowing. When it didn’t die down, I peeked through my window.

  Usually I avoided looking out, because sometimes you don’t want to see your lawn covered in ghosts. Actually, most of the time you don’t want to see your lawn covered in ghosts. Still, I wanted to know what was going on, and as usual my curiosity got me into more trouble than it was worth.

  The lawn had the usual ghosts on it: the tea ladies, Mr. Bone, and the assortment of birds and animals. I almost missed the presence of Mrs. Goodkeep.

  But tonight that wasn’t all. There was a group of six other ghosts glaring up at my window, five men and one woman. I didn’t recognize any of them, but that wasn’t unusual; ghosts tended to avoid me unless they wanted something. They were kind of like cats that way.

  Sighing, I let the curtain fall and hurried downstairs. Grabbing my jacket and slipping on my shoes, I stepped out onto our rickety porch.

  The ghosts had trailed around to the front and were waiting for me. The one who appeared to be the speaker, a very tall man with his arms crossed disapprovingly over his chest, stepped forward.

  “I hear you’re interfering with the window display competition. Never in my life have I heard of anything so appalling.”

  I raise my eyebrows. “Interfering? How am I doing that?”

  “By helping one of the competitors,” said the woman. She was short and stocky and looked like she didn’t like nonsense. She was standing next to a man about the size of a tree trunk, who slung his arm over her shoulder and said, “Calm down. It’s not her fault she’s no good.”

  “Excuse me? What does that mean?” I fumed. These ghosts had a lot of nerve coming onto my property and pointing out the obvious. Where was Paws when I needed him, anyhow? The cat was nowhere to be seen.

  “The integrity of this competition is of the utmost importance to Mintwood. You can’t screw it up,” said the tall man.

  “How can I possibly screw it up? I’ve drawn within some lines and had a couple of conversations,” I said. “It’s up to the store owners to make great displays. That’s not on me! It’s not like I’ve gone to the judges and offered to bribe them.” If the truth were told, Charlie had been close to doing that, but in the end she hadn’t, because Liam had this crazy idea about winning fair and square. In any case, I couldn’t be blamed for what Charlie might have wanted to do.

  The tree trunk man said, “This competition is a highlight of our year. Don’t you think it gets boring being a ghost? Seeing the same things over and over? The changing window displays really bring cheer. You can’t ruin it.”

  “I’m not ruining anything! Why do I get blamed for everything?”

  Then I had a realization. “Wait a minute. Are you just yelling at me because I’m the only one you can yell at?”

  Ghosts can’t talk to just anybody, of course. In fact, until I gave Greer and Charlie permission, they couldn’t talk to anybody but me. They couldn’t go tell off Andre or the mayor and accuse them of ruining the ribbon-cutting event. They also couldn’t yell at Lena. To be fair, Lena wouldn’t notice somebody yelling at her, ghost or otherwise, as proven by the fact that somebody yelled at her every day and it had no effect whatsoever.

  Since none of the ghosts said anything in response to my accusation, and they wouldn’t meet my eyes, I wasn’t sure what to do next. But just then, to my great relief, Paws came bounding from around the back.

  “Oh, did you finally hear me yelling?” I said.

  “What did I miss?” he asked. Then he saw the six ghosts standing in front of me and hissed.

  Now all of the ghosts were starting to look downright ashamed.

  “What do you think you’re doing, bothering the Witch of Mintwood with this nonsense?” said Paws. “You’re just concerned she’ll interfere with your little game. Well, she hasn’t and she won’t, she’s too goodhearted for that.” He looked up at me and said so only I could hear, “It’s important to lie in times like these. Then they go away.”

  “Don’t worry, I believe it,” I said.

  “That’s nonsense,” stormed the woman ghost, who hadn’t calmed down after all. “Even the Gazette said that this is the most important competition of the year, a highlight of the town calendar. It must be done properly. She’s sniffing around looking for old dresses.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, we’re looking for old dresses. That should be an honor, you should be happy that I’m honoring history instead of looking to the future or something.”

  “Like this town would ever do that,” said the tall man. He had a point. Mintwood was very happily stuck in the old ways, and for the most part that didn’t bother me one bit.

  “You all better leave here or I’ll make you leave,” I said.

  “How do you intend to do that?” asked the tree trunk man.

  “I have my ways,” said Paws, his hackles rising. “More importantly, she has her ways.”

  All of the ghosts looked at me, and for a second I glanced down in confusion. Then I said, “Yes, of course I have my ways. I’m a witch. If you push me I’ll use my witchy ways.”

  They looked at each other and shrugged, muttering stuff like, “She says she’s doing the right thing. We might as well believe her. If we don’t, she’ll get nasty.”

  Finally the ghosts wandered away, stopping to talk to the tea ladies and Mr. Bone, all of whom looked delighted to see them and greeted them with smiles and handshakes and offers of tea and cookies.

  “Feel free to learn your magic anytime,” said Paws. “At some point you might get attacked, and it might be a real enemy, and you might need it. The next visiting ghosts might not take you up on your offer to just leave the property.”

  “Who would attack me?” I asked.

  Paws gave me an “Oh, please” look that made my stomach twist. He clearly thought more had happened with my grandmother than he was willing to say, and I should learn magic as quickly as possible. But how could I
do that when I was so busy solving ghost mysteries? The thought that someone had murdered my grandmother set my fury on fire. And when I thought about them coming for me?

  Maybe I should learn magic after all.

  Greer came home from work that night and just had to talk to me. Apparently the tow truck guy and one of the officers who had pulled Kayla’s car out of the lake had been at the bar having a drink, and she had overheard them talking about Kayla.

  “I know I shouldn’t repeat this, but they were saying that there was no damage to the car. They had wondered if a car had hit her from behind, knocking her into the water, but that doesn’t seem to be what happened,” she said breathlessly.

  Strange, I thought. It almost sounded like someone hadn’t actually meant to kill her. Kayla had said that someone pushed her into the lake, but could she have been mistaken?

  “See, my job can be useful too,” said Greer, doing the ladylike thing and sticking her tongue out at Charlie.

  “Your job was useful with the Gracie case. We got to talk to Jeff,” I pointed out.

  “That’s true,” said Greer.

  It was now the night before the window displays would be judged. We had failed in our attempt to help Liam find centerpiece dresses for his window display, dresses so wonderful they’d blow away the competition. He had given up work at the shop and said he was going home soon. We had done what we could to make the window display look gorgeous, but none of us wanted to say out loud that we didn’t think it would be gorgeous enough to beat the Artist’s Art Gallery or any other surprise contenders for the win. In my heart, the Twinkle Costume shop would always be number one, and Lindsay was self-righteous and annoying, but that wasn’t going to be enough to win the competition for Liam.

  I had even taken to asking the ghosts, especially the tea ladies, if they had any spare dresses or knew where we might find some. They had all been terribly offended by my question. “What’s wrong with that girl?” whispered one to another. “What does she think we’re going to do? Take the dresses off our backs?”

  They informed me that they came from good families who had cleared out their homes and taken their old dresses to good new places where the dresses would be properly appreciated. The tea ladies no longer had access to any of them, so how could they tell me how to get access, thank you very much.

  “All my dresses are summer dresses,” joked Mr. Bone.

  To comfort myself I did something I rarely did: I went up to the attic to look at my grandmother’s things.

  She had wired the attic to turn a lamp on instead of the fluorescent and horrible overhead, but even with the lamp on the space was dim. It amazed me how much stuff she had up there. Lining the attic on either side were roughly made shelves that held everything you could think of and quite a few things I bet you couldn’t. There were stacks of scrolls, some of which were maps, maybe even from the same era as Liam’s maps. There were stacks of photo albums, stacks of picture frames, rolls upon rolls of cloth, and old paints, both house paints and paints you’d use with an easel. There was a variety of knickknacks, many of which I couldn’t have identified if you asked me. There was a humidifier, an AC my grandmother had never used, and several chairs, not to mention newspapers from the nineteen forties, but just the sections about clothes. There were old shoe boxes overflowing with projects she had left half finished, and books she had left half read.

  I smiled when I saw it all. The attic smelled of must, rain, and my grandmother, who had loved the scents of sage and rosemary. I felt comforted to be among her things again.

  After she passed away I had needed to collect some of her spell books and hide them away where the plumber I might call or the electrician she had on speed dial wouldn’t accidentally come across them. The attic was the best hiding place, mostly because I could lose her witch stuff amongst all of the rest of her belongings. I had hidden all of it right in the middle of the attic, in the space below where the books were stacked on their shelves.

  Now, I went over to the books. I had sworn I would never open them, and I still didn’t, but for the first time I felt better sitting near them. The dust that flew up as I pulled some of them off the shelf made me cough, and for a few moments I watched it floating in a shaft of lamplight.

  The book covers were great, colorful and splashy, some with flowers the colors of rainbows and others with blueberries the colors of rainbows. My grandmother, in fact, was very into colors and rainbows.

  I sat there for a long time thinking about my second case and hoping I’d solve it soon. I felt bad for leaving Kayla wondering for so long. As for me, I wondered if I was any good at this witching thing after all. After that I sat there for a while longer, thinking about my grandmother and wondering what exactly had happened to her.

  My plan was to break into the Caedmon town office and find out exactly what Mrs. Luke knew, because I felt sure she knew more than she had let on to Hansen, Charlie, and me. It seemed highly likely that the name attached to the missing town money was written on some financial records somewhere in that building, and I wanted to see exactly whose name that was. I had meant to slip out of the house unnoticed, but Greer and Charlie were still awake when I came downstairs to leave.

  Foiled again!

  “Did you become a cat burglar?” said Charlie, eyeing me skeptically.

  “No, why?” I said.

  “You’re wearing all black, so either you’re a burglar or you’re trying to fit in in New York or London,” she said.

  “We aren’t in New York or London,” said Greer, helpfully. “Or Paris either, for that matter.”

  I had in fact put on all black so I could sneak more easily around the town office without being noticed. Duh. Unfortunately, the reverse was true at home, where I now stuck out like a sore thumb.

  “We know you’re up to something, so you might as are just tell us,” said Charlie, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “I was hoping to leave you two out of it,” I said.

  Both my friends look horrified

  “You’re going to leave us out of the fun? How dare you! Just when you find something exciting to do, you want to leave us out? What kind of friend are you! What did you give us the ability to see ghosts for if you weren’t going to take us with you!” Greer cried.

  “Do you feel better now?” Charlie asked.

  “I do, and when she takes us with her, feel free to credit me,” said Greer.

  “What I’m going to do is not exactly legal,” I said.

  The two of them exchanged glances.

  “I’ll get my keys,” said Charlie.

  Greer stood up as well. “I’ll get my jacket.”

  They both raced out of the room, except that Charlie stuck her head back in from the kitchen to tell me I’d better not leave without them or I’d be in big trouble. I wondered what big trouble looked like, Charlie style.

  I sighed en route to the front porch, where Paws was waiting. “That went well,” he said.

  “I can’t hear you when you say things I don’t want to hear,” I said.

  “Must be real quiet for you around here then,” he said.

  My roommates didn’t take long, and soon we were on our way to the Caedmon town office, where maybe this time we’d leave with some real answers. The office was on a back road and fairly isolated, so except for a bright streetlamp shining merrily, we weren’t in danger of being seen.

  The three of us got out of the car and walked up to the door, Paws following not far behind. I was about to try the door when Charlie stopped me. “This is it. We’ve reached the point of no return. If we do this we’ve officially broken the law and we can’t go back,” she said.

  Greer rolled her eyes. “You talk like you’ve never broken the law before.”

  The door proved to be locked (shocker), and none of us were lock picks. I tried twiddling my fingers a few times in hopes that I’d get lucky, but the lock stayed firmly in place. While we stood outside on the steps, wondering what to do, Paw
s disappeared.

  He wasn’t gone for long. He came trotting back and said to us, “One of the windows is open.”

  “Did you open it?” Greer asked suspiciously.

  “I can’t, I’m a ghost,” said Paws.

  The three of us raised our eyebrows. “So much for small-town security,” I muttered. Was it breaking and entering if the window was unlocked?

  The three of us followed the ever-smug cat around to the back of the building. It turned out that the window that was wide open was in the office next to Mrs. Luke’s.

  We moved the window screen out of the way without any trouble, and Charlie and Greer laced their fingers together to give me a leg up. I was just about to pull myself over the window ledge when someone started yelling.

  We were caught.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I fell backward with a cry, knocking into Greer and Charlie, who were equally caught off guard. My two friends and I landed in a heap on the cold wet ground. Greer, Charlie, and I tried to right ourselves, but we were a mess of arms and limbs that we couldn’t seem to untangle.

  “Get off me,” Greer cried.

  “You get off me,” Charlie squealed.

  “Let’s all get off each other,” I said.

  “What happened? You were almost to the window ledge when you fell over,” said Charlie. As she sat up, she made sure to check her hair; finding that it was still perfect, she lowered her hands.

  “Thanks for that description,” I said.

  “You looked ridiculous,” said Greer.

  “I heard a scream. Didn’t you two hear it?” I said.

  My friends shook their heads, which could mean only one thing.

  “And then she finally caught up,” said Paws.

  We didn’t have time to argue about it, because the ghost that had yelled at me now floated through the window and perched on its ledge.

  He was a little man, or at least he had been little in life. He was thin, so thin that I wondered how he had ever intimidated anyone. But that was a question for another day. Charlie was the shortest of us, and I didn’t think he was even as tall as she was. He was balding and he wore a watch on a chain, which his fat fingers were currently curled around as if he would soon have somewhere important to be. He also had a pistol strapped to his belt.