Just then, there was a knock at the front door, and I looked over to see Amy waiting to be let in. I made my way over to the front door and opened it, and she rushed in.
“I heard what happened,” she said, her eyes darting around the room. “Where’s Ellie?”
“In the back, talking with Chief Enforcer King,” I explained. “It’s not a great situation, and it’s made worse by the fact that Ellie and I were the only two people who touched the cinnamon bun before Rosa got her hands on it.”
Amy shook her head. “It would figure that Rosa Lynn is the catalyst that might result in the failure of The Witching Flour. She never liked any of us, although she was too smart to pick on Ellie and me, since we could fight back more easily.”
“Sara was telling me,” I said. Then I lowered my voice to make sure we couldn’t be overheard in the back. “Listen, I know you’re going to be opposed to this, but I think we need to find out who killed Rosa. This was the first day for The Witching Flour. We live in a small town. You know how people are going to talk. We can’t have people thinking that this is a murder bakery, and that they risk losing their lives if they come in to get a cinnamon bun.”
To my immense surprise, Amy immediately nodded. “I agree completely. Chief Enforcer King is competent, that’s for sure, but it’s not enough. The sooner somebody finds out who killed Rosa, the sooner we can work on fixing the reputation of this place. And we don’t necessarily have long; I suspect business is going to drop off pretty quickly here.”
Before I got a chance to reply, Chief Enforcer King and Ellie came out from the back of the shop.
“Thank you witches for the help,” Chief Enforcer King said with a curt nod. “I hope to have the murderer caught sooner rather than later. Now, I know I don’t need to remind you that this is an Enforcer investigation, and that meddling by civilian witches is absolutely not welcome.”
“Of course,” I said, and Chief Enforcer King gave me a pointed look.
“I seem to remember you saying those exact same words to me the last time there was a murderer on the loose,” she said, and a blush began to crawl up my face.
“Yeah, well, that’s in the past,” I muttered, looking at the ground. I didn’t exactly have a snappy comeback since, well, I had completely disobeyed her orders and hunted down the killer all the same.
“I don’t want to see you snooping around investigating this. Got it?”
“Got it,” the four of us replied in unison.
Chief Enforcer King gave us her best stern-mother look, then thanked us again and headed back out.
I definitely had not expected a visit from the town’s Chief Enforcer to be on the list of things I was going to do that day.
Chapter 5
“I can’t believe this,” Ellie moaned as soon as we walked through the door at home about fifteen minutes later. Sara had gone to get pizza for dinner. Pizza was the perfect comfort food for early summer, and it was definitely that kind of night. “I can’t believe this happened. This was supposed to be such an amazing day.”
“How did the rest of it go, otherwise?” Amy asked.
“You mean other than one of my customers having her cinnamon bun poisoned and dying?” Ellie asked, and Amy nodded.
“That’s right. That was one event during an absolutely huge day. What about the rest of it?”
Ellie let out a puff of air. “I feel like the rest of it was overshadowed by that one event.”
“That’s my point. It shouldn’t be. Overall, how did the rest of the day go?”
“I mean, good, I guess?” Ellie shrugged. “We had a ton of customers. Honestly, more than I had expected. We had a pretty good busy period all the way through to about lunchtime, and I had to put some of the dough we had set aside in the oven for the afternoon rush.”
“Did anybody complain about anything?” Amy asked.
I shook my head. “No. Even when we accidentally got so busy we didn’t have time to clear the tables, everybody just picked one table to pile the dirty dishes on, and I eventually got to those and managed to put everything away.”
“So there you go,” Amy said. “Yes, it’s absolutely terrible what happened to Rosa. But whatever it was, it happened outside the bakery, and the rest of the day was excellent. You have to focus on that. After all, tomorrow you’re going to have to go back in there and do it all over again.”
“That’s the problem, though,” Ellie said. “What if nobody comes tomorrow?”
“Then you’ll have more time to find the killer, and when peace is restored to the streets of Western Woods and everybody knows you had nothing to do with the murder, people will come back. But until then, you have to keep working like a professional. Overall, it sounds like the day went really well.”
“I have to agree,” I said. “If it wasn’t for Rosa’s death, we’d be popping bottles of champagne and you’d be tossing abras into the air while yelling about how rich you were.”
Ellie shot me a grin. “That does sound like me, doesn’t it?”
“It really does. So you have to stop wallowing. I know, what happened sucks. It sucks a lot. But we’re going to get to the bottom of it, and when we do, everyone is going to come back to your bakery and everything will be fine.”
Ellie managed a small smile. “Have I ever told both of you I love you? It might be my name on the lease, but there is no way I’d be able to get this business off the ground without both of you there behind me.”
“Whatever we can do to help,” Amy said. “Your problem is you’re too close to it. When you take a step back and look at it from an outsider’s point of view, your situation really isn’t all that hopeless.”
“Besides, how many people could have wanted Rosa dead?” I asked.
“It’s a much longer list than you might suspect,” Ellie said with a wry smile. “But the two of you are right. We’re going to get to the bottom of it, and then everything will be fine. But first, we eat pizza.”
“Celebration pizza,” I specified. “After all, I think today is still worth celebrating. You are a freaking business owner now. How cool is that?”
Ellie took me into a huge hug just as Sara walked through the door with the pies.
The next morning, we did it all over again.
How on earth Ellie was managing all of it, I had absolutely no idea. She worked like a madwoman. While I arrived at The Witching Flour just before we opened at seven in the morning, I knew Ellie was there hours earlier, getting all of the baked goods ready for the day. She had made a ton of dough for all of the items so that she wouldn’t have to prepare any for the first few days, until we got a handle on how much of everything we were going to need, but she still had to be in the kitchen at the back, operating the ovens just after four in the morning to get everything ready in time to open at seven.
“I vote we get a coffee machine just so we can have some before the day starts,” I said with a yawn as I made my way into the kitchen at the back.
“Give me another three days of this and I’ll be right there with you,” Ellie laughed. “Do you need an energy-boosting potion? I have a few around.”
“I should be ok,” I said. “Thanks, though. I might just steal a little something for breakfast that has some energy-boosting potion in it.”
“The blueberry muffins come highly recommended,” Ellie said with a wink. “I’ve been adding lemon zest into the batter and the mixture is absolutely divine, if I may say so myself.”
“Well, how can I say no to the chef’s recommendation?” I laughed, grabbing a muffin from the pan and then quickly pulling my hand away. “Ow, that’s hot!”
“They just came out of the oven, genius,” Ellie teased. “It’s going to take a few minutes before they’re cool enough to handle.”
I grabbed a small plate from a pile of clean dishes in the corner and quickly plucked the muffin I’d had my eye on and plopped it onto that plate. Using a knife, I sliced the muffin open and hot steam rose from the dough, sending
the aroma of baked blueberries and lemon wafting toward my nostrils.
“Yum,” I said, making my way to the huge walk-in fridge with a knife and taking a little slice of butter from one of the large slabs on the shelf to the right. As soon as I put the butter on the muffin, it began to melt, oozing into a gorgeous yellow puddle on the plate. Yes, working at The Witching Flour definitely had its advantages.
As soon as I finished my muffin, I helped Ellie bring the plates filled with the day’s baking out to the front counter. We still hadn’t gotten Amy to set up the part underneath the counter the way we wanted, but with a little bit of Ellie’s magic, we managed to do it ourselves. Now, whenever we ran out of an item, instead of having to run to the back to get another plate, we could simply replace it with one from right underneath the counter, saving precious seconds when we had impatient paranormals waiting to be served.
Lucy showed up a minute after that, and I couldn’t help but feel as though she was avoiding Ellie and me.
“Hi, Lucy, how are you?” I asked.
“Um, yeah, good,” Lucy said. “Listen, I heard about what happened to Rosa last night. Do you…do you think it’s going to affect business at all?”
I shrugged. “Honestly, at this point, I don’t really have a clue. I suppose we’ll see soon enough.”
Lucy nodded and went back to fiddling with the pins she had on display. I made my way to the tables and chairs, making sure they were set up properly for the day, and then unlocked the doors and opened them.
There was no lineup of people waiting outside today, but in a way, I could understand that. After all, yesterday had been our opening day. It was special, and people wanted to be the first to try out the goods from the new local business. Today was just any other day, day two.
Still, as the minutes rolled past and we only had a couple of customers, I began to worry. Was Ellie right? Were people really assuming that they could be killed if they came and ate here, and so they decided to go elsewhere? I was starting to feel as though her fears were not unfounded.
“You might as well go home,” Ellie said dejectedly after an hour had passed and we had only had six customers. “I mean, it’s basically just a waste of time for you to be here. I can handle the few people coming through the door.”
“I will, but only because I want to investigate Rosa’s death,” I said. “And listen, if you need me back here, text me.”
Ellie nodded glumly. “I will, but by the looks of things, that’s not going to be necessary.”
“Hey, chin up. When we find the killer, everything will go back to normal. I promise.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I know Sara is out in the Coven Gardens practicing her broom flying, but is Amy working at coven headquarters?”
Ellie shook her head. “No, I saw her this morning. She told me she was going to spend the day in the library.”
“Well, I probably could have guessed that,” I laughed. “I’ll go find her and see who we should be looking into about Rosa’s death.”
Ellie nodded. “I’ll be here, contemplating my business’s early death thanks to somebody poisoning my customer on the first day.”
I reached in and gave Ellie a big hug. “You’re going to get through this. I promise.”
“I hope you’re right,” my friend answered dejectedly. My heart truly went out to her. She had worked too hard for this to fail, and I was going to do whatever I could to help.
Chapter 6
The coven library was located inside of coven headquarters, a whitewashed brick building topped by a green dome. I bounded up the steps and made my way through the front door, finding myself greeted by Estelle Thurman, a hardworking local witch who considered Amy her competition and was barely civil to me at the best of times. As soon as she saw me, she scrunched up her nose.
“What are you doing here? Lita’s busy today.”
“I’m not here to see Lita,” I replied. “But thanks for the warm welcome. I’m sure Lita would love to know this is how you greet people who have come to visit our coven.”
Estelle scowled. “Yeah, well, sorry.” She couldn’t have sounded less sincere if she tried. Still, I was willing to let it go. I knew Estelle only felt the way she did because Amy always came out on top. After all, Amy was basically the Hermione Granger of Western Woods, and there was no way anybody was going to outwork her when it came to magical academics.
The fact that she spent her days off in the library was proof enough of that.
“I’m just going down to the library to see Amy,” I said, but Estelle shook her head. “Look, I know you don’t like me, but I’m still allowed to go down to the library.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Estelle replied hurriedly. “You’re more than welcome to go into the library, of course, but Amy isn’t there.”
“Really? That’s strange. She told Ellie she was going to be there early this morning.”
“Well, I’ve been working the door since two o’clock this morning, and I can absolutely confirm that in that time Amy hasn’t been to the library.”
I frowned. “Ok, that’s a bit strange. I may go in and have a look, just in case.”
“Help yourself,” Estelle said, motioning for me to enter. I made my way into coven headquarters, and then down the staircase that led to the library in the basement. The Western Woods coven library was incredibly cool-looking, and a bookworm’s dream. There were stacks upon stacks of old leather-bound volumes, although this wasn’t the sort of place where one would find any copies of Harry Potter. Unfortunately, human-world books stayed in the human world.
The coven of Jupiter book of spells sat on a pedestal in the middle of the room, visible as soon as I got down there. I briefly wondered if I was ever going to be able to look at the coven of Titan book of spells. Every coven had their own master book that listed every spell known or created by members of the coven. Unfortunately, each book could only be used by members of the coven, so I could never come down here and look up spells myself. I may have been adopted by this coven, but as far as the magic was concerned, I wasn’t born into it, so I couldn’t read the book.
Making my way through the stacks, I found the set of tables at the back—large, mahogany desks perfect for the witch or wizard trying to study for an exam or looking up information about magic. These were basically Amy’s second home, and I knew her favorite table was the second from the left. It was currently empty; I had a sneaking suspicion that most of the coven considered the table to unofficially belong to Amy and would only sit there if they absolutely had to.
But sure enough, there was no sign of my friend. That was a bit strange; why would she tell Ellie she was going to the library if she wasn’t? Amy wasn’t the sort of witch to lie to us. In fact, she was the most rule-abiding witch I had ever come across. Again, very much a Hermione Granger.
I pulled out my phone and sent her a quick text. To be completely honest, I was a little bit worried. I tried not to be. I was sure there was a perfectly normal explanation. Maybe she had been on her way to the library and run into a friend, or something. Or maybe Sara had texted her, asking for help with a spell to use for the broom competition. There were a million reasons why Amy might not have been here, and every single one of them was completely plausible.
So I didn’t have Amy. That didn’t mean I couldn’t investigate this murder on my own. The problem was I had absolutely no idea where to start. I didn’t know Rosa Lynn, which meant that I didn’t have a clue as to who might have wanted her dead. Luckily, as I made my way back through the stacks, the universe took care of that for me as I heard two witches holding a hushed conversation on the other side of some books.
“I can’t believe she’s dead,” the first witch whispered, which was what caught my attention. They had to have been talking about Rosa.
“Are you sure you can’t believe it?” the second witch replied. “I mean, come on, if anybody had a gift for annoying people, it was Rosa.”
&n
bsp; “Sure, she wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, but it’s not like she was a bad witch. Some people are difficult, but people don’t go murdering them. Besides, underneath that gruff exterior, she was a much nicer witch than most people give her credit for.”
“You’re only saying that because you’re her sister,” the second witch replied. “There had to be a half dozen people in this town who would have legitimately wanted to see her dead.”
“That’s just a straight-up lie,” the first witch said. “Who do you think hated Rosa so much they would have wanted her dead?”
“Well, for one thing, there was Leon.”
“That shifter she fired a couple of weeks ago? He knows why he was fired. Rosa felt like hiring security was a waste of money, and that no one in Western Woods was a threat.” The sister let out a hollow laugh. “Little did she know. I told her she needed the security. She was a high-profile witch with a lot of valuable items on the estate. But Rosa told me he understood when she let him go.”
“Maybe, but what if he secretly feels like he was treated unfairly? That would definitely be reason enough to go after your sister. And he’s not the only one, either. I heard that your sister got into a fight with one of the witches who works as a magical fixer. Something about how your sister apparently stole her boyfriend. If that’s how she felt, I could see the witch trying to get revenge on Rosa.”
“Look, fine,” Rosa’s sister said. “I get it. My sister didn’t have a lot of friends. But that didn’t mean she deserved to die, and I’m not going to let her killer get away with it.”
“That’s fine, Lily,” the second witch said. “But I think you’re going about this plan of yours the wrong way. Chief Enforcer King is an honest Enforcer. If you go to her and offer her money to prioritize your sister’s case, she’s going to see it the wrong way, and you’re going to risk jail time for bribing an Enforcement official.”
Seven Year Witch Page 3
