The Halloween Love Spell

by Morgana Best

  I was daydreaming when a screeching voice set my nerves on edge. “Well, if it isn’t Amelia Spelled!”

  I looked up into the unpleasant face of Kayleen. Her boyfriend, Craig, was with her. To my surprise, she was dressed as a Hollywood witch, and Craig was dressed as a black cat.

  “Nice costumes,” I said. I meant it.

  Kayleen eyed me warily, clearly wondering if I was being sarcastic. “We’re joining that Halloween party there.” She pointed to a table of people all variously dressed in Halloween costumes. “It’s run by Australia Post.”

  “That’s nice,” I said. “I’ve noticed a lot more Halloween things around lately. When I was a kid, Halloween wasn’t really celebrated all. Not in Australia.”

  “I bought my costume on eBay,” Kayleen said. “I can wear it year after year. Why did your boyfriend run off? Was it the company?” She sniggered.

  And just when I thought there was the chance of a civil conversation. While I was doing my best to think up a snarky reply, she spoke again. “Oh, did you have any trouble the week before last when I was away for a week?”

  “Trouble with the mail?” I asked her.

  “What else?” She sneered at me. “The temporary replacement was a very annoying woman. She tried to tell me how to do my job, so if you want to complain about her, I can give you the email address of where you can lodge it.” Kayleen did her best imitation of a smile. I figured she had it in for her temporary replacement and wanted her fired.

  “I don’t remember a replacement,” I said. “What did she do wrong?”

  “I hope you’re not on the woman’s side,” Kayleen said. Her cheeks puffed up in anger.

  “I don’t even know her,” I said. My irritation was growing. I’d already had a pleasant dinner ruined, and Kayleen wasn’t helping my mood. “Why would you think I’d be on her side?”

  Kayleen crossed her arms over her chest. “That dead bank guy was going to lodge a complaint about her,” she said. “I told him he had to make it official, and he said he would. But then he died, so who else can make an official complaint about her?”

  Now she had my interest. “Myles Woods was going to lodge a complaint against your temporary replacement?”

  “Yes,” Kayleen spat. “She left a parcel at his back door.”

  I didn’t know why that was a problem, but I didn’t know whether the already angry Kayleen would be more incensed if I said so. Considering she was still glaring at me, I thought I should resist saying anything to anger her further. “That’s against the rules, isn’t it?” I said, hazarding a guess.

  Kayleen nodded vigorously. “Instead of leaving it on his front porch undercover, she left it at his back door. What if it had rained? And worse still, he was supposed to sign for it.”

  Craig patted Kayleen’s arm in obvious attempt to placate her. “I’m sure other people will complain about her.”

  Kayleen stomped her foot, causing several of the patrons nearby to look at her. “That bank guy was inconvenienced,” she said a little too loudly for the intimate restaurant. “He said it was a valuable package. I had a little word with my replacement about it, and she outright denied it. Disobeying the Australia Post rules is one thing, but lying? And I’m sure she’s after my job.”

  “But Myles Woods wasn’t inconvenienced too much,” Craig said in a soothing tone. “He said that the company had accidentally sent him two packages instead of one. He came out winning.”

  A petulant look crossed Kayleen’s face. “He was still going to complain about her,” she said angrily.

  The waiter arrived and placed my Tower of Indulgence in front of me, and that was enough to make Kayleen leave. I got off lightly, all things considered. I looked over at her at the Australia Post table. She was waving her arms, no doubt telling them the same story.

  Chapter 19

  I awoke in the middle of the night with a start. I had slept fitfully, most likely because something was brewing in the back of my mind. In my half awake state, I replayed the conversation with Kayleen over and over again. She had said it was a valuable package—what if it was a package of the coffee that Myles had ordered from France, the coffee that had been laced with strychnine?

  I sat bolt upright and went into the kitchen. I made myself a cup of lemon and ginger tea, and took it into the living room. I propped myself up with cushions and stretched my legs across the sofa. Willow and Hawthorn were still asleep on my bed, so I had the sofa to myself, a rare occurrence.

  The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. This seemed to be a solution as to how the murderer got the poison into Myles’ coffee. The murderer had somehow intercepted Myles’ package, laced the contents with strychnine, and then taken it back to his house. Still, that seemed rather complicated.

  I had almost finished my tea before I remembered what Craig said. He had said that Myles had ended up with two packages when he was only expecting one. “Aha!” I slapped my leg, startling both Willow and Hawthorn who were making their way over to me. “I think I’ve solved the mystery, sort of,” I addressed them. They both looked less than impressed.

  “Only one of those packages was genuine. The other one was put there by the murderer. That meant the murderer had to order the same coffee, and put the strychnine in it.” Hawthorn licked his paw. I pushed on. “This is how I think it unfolded. The murderer somehow found out that Myles only drank that special coffee, and that he ordered it from France. Okay, that presents a problem. How would the murderer know?”

  Hawthorn promptly fell asleep on the floor. I slapped my leg again. Hawthorn opened one eye and glared at me. “I’ve got it! Kayleen loves to gossip about the contents of people’s parcels.”

  Willow jumped up on the sofa and kneaded my leg. He forgot to retract his claws before he did so. I let out a yell of pain. “You two are absolutely no help,” I told them. I turned my attention back to the problem at hand. “Okay, so the murderer found out about the coffee, and bought some of their own. It was a simple matter to put strychnine in one or more of the bottles and then drop the package at Myles’ back door.” I nodded to myself.

  The only problem I could see was that the murderer risked being seen when he or she delivered the package. Then again, I remembered that Myles’ house backed onto the big reserve that ran parallel to the highway. Anyone could walk along that reserve and then slip unseen through the bushes, pop over Myles’ fence, and through his backyard. I didn’t know the area well, but I knew enough to know that it was quite private. The bank’s hours were hardly a secret, so the murderer didn’t have to worry that Myles would have been home at the time.

  I was pretty sure I had figured out how the poison had been placed in Myles’ coffee. I looked at the time on my iPad on the coffee table. It was three in the morning. I could hardly call Ruprecht, or Thyme, or even Alder for that matter.

  I woke up at eight, still on the sofa. Both Willow and Hawthorn were lying on my leg, which had gone to sleep. I gently dislodged them and jumped up and down, trying to get the pins and needles out of my leg. There was no time to call anyone now—I had to have breakfast, feed the cats, have a shower, get dressed, and then head to the shop.

  Thyme was less excited about the news than I had been. “It tells us how, but it doesn’t bring us any closer to telling us who,” she said.

  I pulled a face. “We know it wasn’t Jasmine Walters,” I said, “so that really only leaves Carol Hope or Kristen Woods.”

  Thyme raised her eyebrows. “Have you given up on Paulette Pinkerton?”

  “Yes,” I said with a laugh. “She’s a client of Alder’s. I don’t think I’m supposed to know that, though, so don’t tell anyone. She was at the bank that morning because she lost her credit card on the way to Bayberry Creek. Alder is certain that she’s never even met Myles Woods. What’s more, she’s gay.”

  Thyme poked me on the shoulder. “See! I told you there was no reason to be jealous of that man of yours.”

  I chuckled. “Maybe it�
��s a Halloween thing. Maybe I get jealous every Halloween.”

  “I hope it’s not a Halloween thing that someone gets murdered,” Thyme said. “This is two Halloweens in a row.”

  I sobered immediately. “So what do we do now? Like you said, either Kristen Woods or Carol Hope could have left that package at Myles’ house.”

  “That reminds me.” Thyme tapped her forehead. “Carol called five minutes before you got here. She said she has a cancellation this morning if you’d like to take the appointment.”

  I pulled a face. “I don’t know. What if she’s the murderer? I wonder if we should leave it to the police now. Still, I am a suspect. Maybe I should go and keep my eyes open.”

  Thyme shook her head. “What if she is the murderer?”

  “I’m sure she’s not going to murder all her accounting clients,” I said with a laugh. “I think I’ll be quite safe. We’ve already been to her place once before, and she didn’t have any strychnine lying around, so what could go wrong?”

  Thyme frowned. “I suppose so. Just be careful.”

  It was with some trepidation that I knocked on Carol’s door fifteen minutes later.

  She opened the door and smiled widely. “Come in. I hope you didn’t trip over those cardboard boxes on the way in?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “I’m saving them,” she said. “I rip the boxes into shreds, and put them in the garden as mulch. It stops the weeds growing.”

  I looked at the overabundance of weeds in the garden. There was no suitable response. I simply said, “Thanks for fitting me in.”

  “I hope you’re pleased that I did,” she said in an accusatory tone, while showing me into her office.

  I hurried to reassure her. “Yes, I’m most grateful. Thank you.” I had brought along a simple profit and loss statement. I didn’t want to take her on as an accountant, of course, but I needed something to fool her for the duration.

  “Would you like a glass of water?”

  I took one look at the dirty coffee cup on her office desk, and shook my head. “No, thank you.”

  She let out a sigh of disgust. “Do you remember when McDonald’s had the free coffee refills? Those were the days. I used to keep a polystyrene cup in my handbag, so I could refill it for free every day. I didn’t have to pay for coffee back then. ”

  “That’s a good idea,” I said, trying to stifle a laugh.

  She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean by that? I can’t do it anymore, can I? They haven’t done it for years.”

  I shoved my profit and loss statement across to her. She took a long look at it before looking back up at me. “Like I said on the phone, the first session with a prospective client is always free.” Her expression was pained, suggesting it hurt her to do something for free. “Do you have self managed superannuation?”

  I shook my head. “No, I’m in a fund.”

  Carol went on to explain the benefits of self managed superannuation. Whatever her eccentricities, she seemed quite knowledgeable. “I’m just going to get myself some more coffee before we continue,” she said after an interval. She narrowed her eyes again. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Not at all,” I said. I was taken aback by her sporadic and sudden turns of apparent aggression, but I figured that was just her personality.

  “I’ll just go out and boil the jug.” As she was leaving the room, she looked back over her shoulder at me. “Don’t touch anything. Don’t take one of those pens.”

  I held up my hands. “I won’t.”

  After she left, I looked around the room idly, wondering how I could beat a hasty retreat. This woman sure was stingy. Her pen holder was an old plastic milk bottle cut in half. Her filing system consisted of various cardboard boxes filled with paperwork. I wanted nothing more than to be out in the fresh air, instead of in an enclosed converted garage that was dank and smelt of mould.

  And what did I hope to find out anyway? What possible evidence could there be that she had killed Myles Woods? No, I wasn’t going to find out anything here. Before I could think up an excuse to leave early, she came back to the room. She placed her coffee cup down, but some coffee splashed over the edge.

  Carol left the room again, muttering to herself, and soon returned with a roll of toilet paper. When she caught me looking askance, she said, “Toilet paper is much cheaper than tissues.” With that, she proceeded to mop up the mess.

  “This coffee is expensive,” she said to herself.

  I thought she must be stingy if she thought instant coffee was expensive. It only cost a fraction of the real stuff. That’s when it hit me. “That coffee smells really nice,” I said. “Is it too late to change my mind and have a cup of coffee, after all?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “What you mean by that?” she spat.

  I was taken aback. “Oh, I’m sorry. You offered me a cup of coffee before and I said no, but your coffee smells so good that I’ve changed my mind. If that’s all right?” I ended lamely. It was only after I finished speaking that I realised she hadn’t offered me coffee at all.

  Her eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “All night, then. I can’t give you the type of coffee I was drinking, though. It’s expensive. You’ll have to have the homebrand coffee. This is a free appointment, after all.”

  I nodded vigorously. “Sure, sure. Could I have it black, please?”

  She stomped out of the room, clearly displeased. As soon as she shut the door, I picked up her coffee cup and sniffed it.

  It smelt of chocolate, just as I suspected, and the dregs were certainly a chocolate colour, but surely there was more than one brand of chocolate flavoured instant coffee?

  While I waited, I thought it through. If Carol was the murderer, she had no way of knowing how many jars of coffee were in Myles’ standard order. I figured she ordered several jars, just to be on the safe side. So why did she have any left over? I hadn’t figured that out yet. Still, it wouldn’t be hard for her to get that information out of Kayleen. Carol was so stingy that I was certain she wouldn’t throw out any excess jars of expensive coffee, even to avoid incriminating herself.

  I decided to call the police as soon as I left Carol’s house. Perhaps they were completely oblivious to the fact that someone had delivered a box of coffee to Myles Woods that he had not ordered. A search of Carol’s place should surely turn up the extra coffee.

  Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree. I was assuming that the duplicate package delivered to Myles contained coffee, but it could have contained anything at all. I had to speak to Kayleen. It was uncanny the way she knew the contents of everyone’s mail. Most people in town suspected that she opened their mail and looked inside. Kayleen would know the answer.

  Chapter 20

  Instead of driving straight back to my shop, I drove home. It was approaching the time that Kayleen did her parcel deliveries, so I decided to wait for her at my front gate and ask her about Myles’ coffee delivery.

  I spent my time pulling out weeds in the garden. A purple wisteria petal fell in my hair from the arbour, and I picked it out and turned it over in my hand. I loved wisteria, but it only flowered for about two weeks of every year in this town. I inhaled the delicious vanilla fragrance, and turned my face to the gentle breeze ruffling my hair.

  My mood changed instantly when I saw Kayleen’s car stop at a house up the street. I hurried over to her car and waited while she was delivering the parcel. She took a while, and I figured that was because she was imparting a lot of gossip to the unfortunate homeowner, and probably interrogating her about all her personal business.

  When Kayleen returned to the car, she narrowed her eyes. “What do you want?” she said by way of greeting. “It’s going to rain any second, and I don’t want to get caught in it.”

  “Hello to you, too,” I said. “Kayleen, I need some information.”

  She pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest. I pushed on. “I wanted to make an official complaint about your tempor
ary replacement, but I need some information first.”

  Kayleen’s expression brightened considerably, but she remained suspicious. “What did you want to know?”

  “I only realised this morning that I was expecting a package the week that your replacement was working, but it’s gone missing,” I lied.

  “Yes, she was hopeless,” Kayleen spat.

  “And I thought someone should also lodge a complaint on Myles Woods’ behalf. I know he’s, well, no longer with us, but I don’t think it’s fair that he didn’t get to make his complaint against the incompetent woman.”

  Kayleen stepped forward. “You know, you’re right! Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “I suppose it would be worse for your replacement if Myles’ package that she left at his back door without getting his signature was valuable,” I said. “The more valuable it was, the more trouble she’ll be in.”

  Kayleen stabbed a finger in my direction. “You’re right! It was a valuable package. The first time I delivered that type of package to him, I asked him what it was, and he said it was his expensive coffee from France. Actually, it’s not made in France, it’s made in Switzerland, but it costs an arm and a leg. He said it was one of his vices.” She broke off with a nasal laugh.

  “So the extra parcel that got delivered to him and left without his signature was definitely his coffee?” I asked her. “Both packages were his coffee?”

  “Yes, it was. Sometimes you’re not as stupid as you look, Amelia.” She slapped me on my shoulder and went over her car, laughing. “I’ll find out exactly how much that coffee is worth, and then I’ll lodge a complaint on Myles’ behalf. That package needed a signature.”

  I hurried back to my house to get my phone. The rain was falling in earnest now. First, I called Thyme. “I’ll be there in a minute. I’ve just got to call the police.”

  “Why, did Carol attack you or something?”