by Amy Boyles
Personally I don’t think she wanted me to finish my tale. She wanted to be the fly in the ointment, as the saying went.
Over those sixty minutes I felt that Granny Mildred learned that being the fly didn’t necessarily bother me. I got along just fine with flies.
In answer to Captain Blount’s question, I said, “Yes, I need y’all to help me search the town for a man who can change objects into gold. After being quite visible for several days, he’s now missing.”
“What makes you, you ornery girl, think he’s still skulking around Haunted Hollow?” Mildred snapped.
I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but with y’alls’ help, I will find out.”
Francine spoke. “I say we assist Blissful. She’s been nothing but good to us. She helped me, after all.” Francine smoothed her white hair. “Why not? I’ll throw my hat in the ring and look.”
She batted her lashes at the captain. “And what about you, Cappy-pooh? Will you be a dear and help find this fellow?”
Blount grunted in reply.
“As long as Blount over there stays out of my way, I’ll help,” Farmer Kency said.
The captain shot him a sour expression before placing a hand over his heart. “I will help, Madam, any way I can. I, William Fitzpatrick Blount, am at your service.”
I started to thank them all when Granny Mildred interrupted—of course she did.
“Well I ain’t doing nothing. This is all some hoax to get us out of here, take our cemetery away from us.”
I rolled my eyes. “And where would I take it?”
She jabbed a finger at me. “I don’t know what you and your technology can do. You’d probably drop our bodies in the ocean for the sharks to eat.”
“I think they like their meat real, not ghostly.”
“Dagnabbit,” she yelled. “I ain’t helping unless there’s something in it for me.”
Here we go. “Okay, Mildred,” I said slowly, working my mouth around the words, “what sort of thing would you like to get in return for helping me?”
Mildred chewed on some ghostly piece of something. She spat invisible saliva onto the ground. “I want…” she started.
The fact that she had to think about it made me believe the only thing Mildred wanted was to be difficult.
“I want a new headstone,” she said quickly.
I snapped my fingers. “Done. I’ll make sure of it.” I smoothed my palms down my thighs, ironing out the creases. “Now, if that’s settled, y’all can start. Split up in town and watch. I don’t know where this man is staying. But if any folks have heard of him, they’ll be talking.”
Francine rubbed her hands with glee. “I can’t wait to get started. Oh, a mystery! How I love a good mystery!”
My phone rang. Roan’s name lit up the screen. “Hey there,” I said.
“Hey,” he answered, none too chipper.
A jolt of worry ran down my spine. “Everything okay?”
I could practically hear him shaking his head. “No, it’s not. Axel and Pepper are down at the police station.”
“What?” I yelled. “What for?”
“Kency caught them in the park. Apparently several public items have been turned into gold.”
My heart beat so fast I thought it might jump from my chest. “Oh no.”
“It gets worse.”
I groaned. “Tell me it doesn’t.”
“It does. One of the items is a statue of a woman.”
I closed my eyes tightly. “But it’s not an actual statue, is it—originally made from stone?”
“I doubt it.”
I exhaled a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll be there in a few minutes. We’ll get them out of jail and investigate the park. Maybe we can convince Kency to keep all of this under wraps.”
“I think that’s going to be a problem.”
I waved goodbye to the spirits. We could finish our conversation tomorrow, I thought as I sprinted toward my SUV. “What makes you think keeping it under wraps will be hard?”
“Because right now there’s about half a dozen television news trucks parked on the street. The world’s found out about the gold, Blissful. This is no longer under any kind of wrapping.”
I groaned. So much for searching for this guy quietly. But at least we knew he was still around.
I tugged open my vehicle door. “Give me ten minutes.”
“I’ll be here,” he said.
I fired up the engine and glanced at the spirits. They were waving at me. It looked like Captain Blount had something he wanted to say. I buzzed down my window.
“I’ve got an emergency. Have to go! We can talk later!” Then I hit the gas. The vehicle lurched, kicking up dirt and rocks as I sped out of the Oaks Cemetery and into the night.
I reached the inn a few minutes later. Roan was waiting. He opened the door for me before I had a chance to knock.
“Have you heard anything else?” I asked.
Roan slipped on his jacket. “No. Axel called to tell me what happened, and I spotted the TV crews, there.”
I followed his finger to the window. I pushed aside the drapes and looked. From this distance, the edge of the park was visible, and so were blindingly bright lights showcasing that the TV crews were working, all right.
“Ugh,” I moaned, “this is not good.”
Betty’s voice drifted from the top of the stairs. “You’ve got that right.” She slowly started making her way down. “We’ve got to break my granddaughter and her husband out of jail.”
I shot Roan a concerned look, which he mirrored. “I don’t think we have to break them out,” he said. “We should be able to go down and pay their bail.”
I nodded. “And there’s no evidence against them, right? They didn’t do this, so Kency couldn’t have seen them actually defacing the property.”
“Not that it’s stopped her before,” Roan murmured.
He had a point. Kency could be hotheaded. She’d almost dragged me into the station a couple of times. Somehow I’d always managed to convince her otherwise, but not without some difficulty.
“Too bad we don’t have a tin of Alice’s cookies or shortbread,” I joked. “And it’s also too bad we couldn’t sprinkle some magic on them, something that would persuade Kency to just unlock the cell she’s got Axel and Pepper in. That way we wouldn’t have to pay bail and she wouldn’t continue to suspect them in this.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Betty said. A glimmer of excitement filled her eyes. “I have the feeling that your request could easily be filled.”
The hairs on my arms rose. I had a strange feeling about this—like Betty was about to get all magical on us. I wasn’t sure I wanted to witness it.
“What do you mean,” I asked, “the request can be filled?”
“What I mean is”—she shot Roan a pointed look—“between his cookies and my magic, I bet we could whip up exactly what you’re asking for.”
I scoffed. “And how would we get Kency to eat them?”
Betty winked. “No one can resist magical cookies.”
Roan rubbed his hands together. “I will make you the most delicious chocolate chip cookies you’ve never tasted, because according to you, they’ll make you do things that might make my hair stand on end.”
I chuckled and glanced at Roan and Betty, both of whom looked as if they were ready to either go to battle or appear in a television Bake-Off.
“Well, what are we standing around for?” I said. “Let’s get baking.”
The jailhouse was quiet when we entered. The heat rattling from the vents was about the only sound I heard. No one sat at the desk, I’m guessing because it was late and Haunted Hollow had little to no crime.
“I assume you’re here to post bail.”
Kency’s voice came from one of the offices. I heard what sounded like heels clicking on linoleum, and the next thing I knew, Kency stood in her doorway, a smirk plastered across her face.
Roan cleared his throat. “We are.”
&nb
sp; She crossed her arms and stared at me smugly. “Just figures you’d know those two. Caught them sniffing around the park, near the defaced articles.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, and we know how criminals like to return to the scene of the crime,” I said sarcastically, not because it wasn’t true but because Pepper and Axel weren’t criminals.
Kency’s eyes narrowed in anger.
Roan leaned down and whispered in my ear, “You’re not making things better.”
I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. I gritted my teeth and murmured, “Fine.”
“So,” Kency said, “if you’re here to post bail, I’ve got some paperwork that needs to be filled out.”
Roan stepped forward. “I’ll be happy to oblige, and by the way,” I heard him say as he entered the office, “I brought a little something I’d like you to try, a new recipe.”
I could hear the interest in her voice. “Not trying to butter me up, are you, Roan?”
“I would never do that, Kency,” he said with mock shock. “I’m insulted you’d even suggest it.”
Five minutes later Roan was stepping out of Kency’s office with the jail keys in his hand.
“I knew it would work.” Betty cackled. “Y’all are lightweights. Probably can’t even look at a food spell without it taking effect.”
I stifled a laugh as I didn’t want Kency to hear. It would be a shame if the spell suddenly broke because I had to laugh.
Roan disappeared down a hall. The jangling of keys could be heard and him saying, “All right. Let’s get the two of y’all out of here.”
It was no time before Axel and Pepper appeared with Roan leading the way. Roan winked at me before depositing the keys back in Kency’s office.
Worry spiked down my spine. What if Kency snapped out of her stupor later and realized what we’d done? We’d be in a heap of trouble then.
“Don’t worry,” Betty whispered as if she knew what I was thinking, “she’ll forget all about Axel and Pepper and even this whole night. By tomorrow morning, none of this ever happened.”
That was a win-win.
“Thanks, Kency,” Roan said from behind the wall. He reappeared a moment later. Our gazes snagged, and he widened his eyes as if to say, Let’s make a run for it.
I quickly followed him, but Kency’s voice stopped me in my tracks.
“There’s just one more thing,” she said.
The five of us stopped and slowly turned toward her. My heartbeat ratcheted up about five notches, and I took slow, purposeful breaths to keep myself from looking as freaked out as I felt.
“Yes?” Roan said.
Kency pulled a cookie out from behind her back and took a bite. She moaned with pleasure and shook the cookie at Roan. “You’ve got to get me this recipe. I could eat these all day long.”
Roan gave me a sly wink before answering, “I’ll have it for you first thing in the morning.”
Satisfied, Kency slinked back into her office, and the five of us bolted out the front door.
Blissful
When we were back in Roan’s room, he wiped a tear of laughter from his eyes. “And when she said, ‘One more thing,’ I thought for sure we were done for. I thought, this is it—Kency’s going to lock me up forever. I’ll never get out.”
I raised a glass of water in a toast. “To Roan, for keeping his cool when it was needed most.”
He sank onto his couch and strapped his guitar over his legs. He strummed a few chords and adjusted a tuning key. His fingers plucked a string, and, satisfied, he wedged his back into the couch cushions.
Roan’s fingers danced over the guitar as he spoke. “I thought for sure I’d wind up in jail.”
“Not today.” I took a sip of my water and rested it on a table. Roan’s suite of rooms that were connected to the kitchen proved more homey than a bachelor pad. I spent a good deal of time in them, so I should know.
“Axel is worried,” Roan said, the sentence coming out from pretty much nowhere.
“About the park?”
He kept his eyes on the guitar as he answered, a soft melody filling the living room. “About that, yes, and about the news outlets finding out about the gold objects. It could bring trouble to town.”
“Trouble in the form of a vampire?” I said.
Roan’s gaze flickered to mine. “That’s the kind.”
I dropped my head onto the back of the couch and stared up at the ceiling. “Why can’t this just be easy? Give me a ghost any day, but all this witches and vampires stuff is a bit much.”
Roan took a pull from his own bottle of water. “Maybe you can use the ghosts to your advantage, have them attack any vampires.”
I clicked my tongue. “You might be on to something. I’ll get Granny Mildred right on that.”
“Who?”
I sighed. “A ghost with attitude, that’s who.”
“Ah, one of those. Maybe the two of you are related.”
I glared at him. “Do you want to continue dating, or would you like to break up now?”
“Calm down, killer.” He smiled at me. It was one of the seven wonders of the world, I swear, the way Roan’s face lit up and how a simple smile could make me brighten and soften at the same time.
“Fine, I’ll remain calm.” I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“We check out the park along with the rest of the town.”
“Sounds good. Maybe with everyone interested in the park, the gold man will show up and we’ll find him.”
Roan raised his bottle of water. “Here’s to hoping.”
I smiled, yet a knot of worry formed in the bottom of my stomach.
Roan, seeming to sense my discomfort, said, “What is it?”
I grimaced. “I don’t know; all this attention at the same time as the Tam Nugget festival does not bode well for us. It may make things easier, but it might also…”
“Make them a thousand times harder?”
I nodded as I raked my fingers through my hair. “Of course, I asked the spirits at the Oaks to search for him, so hopefully they will.”
Roan stopped strumming and plucked my hand from the base of my neck. He held it as he studied me. “Never have I known you to worry. If anything, the Blissful I know would attack this problem by kicking it in the crotch.”
I laughed. “Is that a compliment?”
He eyed me with hesitation. “Do you want it to be?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Forget I said it.” Roan waved his hand dismissively. “All I’m saying is that things will be fine.”
“Got it—things will be fine.”
A heavy silence coated the room. I could almost taste it, taste what we weren’t saying to each other.
I scoffed. Might as well be the one to start the conversation.
But Roan cut me off. “All I meant when I said the thing about ‘forever’ is that I could see us working with each other a long time. I didn’t say it to send you sprinting up a tree.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not afraid of a little working-together talk.”
A glimmer of amusement filled his eyes. Roan returned to lightly strumming his guitar. “And what if I wanted to discuss more—discuss us making a big leap?”
I glared at him. “Why would you want to do that? What we have is great—it’s perfect, actually.”
“I don’t think putting a ring on it changes anything.”
I know my jaw dropped. I could feel it practically resting on my chest. I did my best to look cool while I raised it back to a closed position.
“It changes a lot, Roan.”
“Not about how you feel.”
I bristled. “Are you speaking for me?”
“Calm down, killer.” His eyes darkened. “I’m not trying to make you angry or speak for you. I’m stating a fact. Moving a relationship to the next level changes nothing, at least not in my opinion. If it changes something
for you, I’d like to hear it. What difference would it make?”
I started ticking things off on my fingers. “For one, it would change our proximity. We’d be around each other a lot more. We’d share bathroom space. Little things that we might think are cute about each other now could become annoying, even frustratingly so.”
“Speak for yourself,” he murmured. “But continue. I’m fascinated by this tally so far.”
I shot him a look full of daggers because he was absolutely being sarcastic. “Okay, I’ll continue. We might spend so much time together that we’d become bored with one another, and then what? Do things fall apart? Do we move on? And what if the other one of us isn’t bored—then that person would be crushed if things ended.”
“Okay, first of all,” Roan said, “let me just counter a few things. Yes, we’d spend more time together, but that’s what I want. Blissful, I want to wake up and have your face be the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. I want to watch you brush your teeth while I wiggle around you in the bathroom just to reach my hairbrush. No, I don’t think all your habits are cute. In fact, I think the way you bite and snap at some things is downright annoying, but that’s a part of you that I love—your ferocity.”
“Hmm,” I replied.
“And what you call bored, I call comfortable. That’s any relationship. You fall into something easy, something comfortable, because the other person knows you as well as you know yourself, and to me”—he touched his heart—“that means we’ve achieved something that few could ever break. But if those things don’t sound like real, actual achievements, then maybe I was wrong about who you are.”
That was maybe the harshest thing Roan had ever said to me. “You know who I am.”
“I do, or I thought I did.” He shook his head in frustration. “But I also thought the things that were important to me were also important to you. I would have thought you’d see a long-lasting relationship as an achievement, not a detriment. Maybe I was wrong about you, because here you sit, telling me that you’d become bored with me, that I’m not interesting enough to be around for the long-term.”
My heart shattered into a thousand pieces. “You’re misunderstanding me, Roan. I’m not saying I would be bored you with, but…”
