A Drop of Magic (A Sugarcomb Lake Cozy Mystery Book 3)

by Alaine Allister

  “This isn’t going to hurt a bit,” her aunt assured her, ignoring the question.

  Suddenly Clarissa felt her feet leave the ground. Her eyes went wide as she was lifted up.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, nearly dropping her phone and the pizza.

  “I’m bringing you up to the window so you can hand me the pizza,” Matilda said simply, as if that was a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to do. “Just stay calm.”

  “What?” Clarissa exclaimed in disbelief. “Oh, no, you can’t be serious right now! Are you insane? You’re not making me fly a million feet off the ground just so you can get your stupid pizza. Put me down right now!”

  Clarissa’s anger must have been evident, because Matilda didn’t argue. Instead, she obliged. After a terrifying few seconds that felt like hours, Clarissa felt her feet touch the ground. Her heart was still pounding like crazy.

  “What were you thinking?” Clarissa demanded, still furious with her aunt’s recklessness. “I could have been killed! You do not put spells on me without my permission! I thought we had already been over this! Keep your stupid magic to yourself!”

  “Okay,” Matilda agreed, sounding a little hurt. “I wouldn’t have let you fall, you know.”

  “I don’t care,” Clarissa snapped, still fuming. “You do not do that! Ugh!” She turned on her heel and prepared to storm away. Being furious was a better alternative to panicking. And right now, she was pretty freaked out.

  “Wait!” Matilda exclaimed. “What about my pizza?”

  “I don’t care about your pizza!” Clarissa exploded, finally fed up with her quirky aunt’s antics. “If you want it, then come down here and get it yourself!” With that, she threw the pizza box down onto the grass.

  A moment later, the pizza box rose up into the air.

  Clarissa watched as it drifted lazily up to the window. Then Matilda plucked it from the air.

  “Why didn’t you just do that in the first place?” Clarissa demanded.

  “I didn’t think of it until now,” Matilda replied.

  Throwing her hands up in frustration, Clarissa didn’t even know what to say. Her aunt was nuts. There was no question about it. Sometimes it was adorable and quirky, but tonight it was downright exasperating.

  “I have to go,” Matilda said. “Thanks for the pizza.”

  Still upset, Clarissa didn’t answer. Instead, she ended the phone call without saying goodbye. Maybe that was rude of her, but it had also been rude of Matilda to cast a spell on her without asking. In fact, Clarissa was still trembling.

  Why couldn’t she just have a normal, boring family?

  The witch stuff had been intriguing at first, but now it was starting to get old.

  Chapter 20

  “I can feel my brain cells dying,” Clarissa groaned in frustration. “I’m so bored!”

  She had given up on flying after taking another scary yet harmless tumble. Now she was just waiting for Nancy to go home. The impatient reporter sat cross-legged on the grass staring at the tall building in front of her.

  With nothing to entertain her, the wait was tedious. It was less exciting than watching paint dry.

  The good news was that she had a new idea brewing. She hadn’t ever noticed how big the windows on the top floor were. And until a few moments earlier, she hadn’t known they opened up so wide. They certainly opened wide enough to push a grown man out…

  Clarissa stared at the building until her eyes became unfocused.

  At that point her vision blurred and her mind began to wander.

  She was envisioning a dramatic, tumultuous relationship between Nancy and Miles. What had happened between them? Perhaps she had fallen for him only to find him flirting with another woman. Maybe she had flown into a jealous rage and a fight had ensued.

  Nancy could have killed Miles on purpose, enraged that he had broken her heart.

  Or maybe it had been a terrible freak accident; a simple shove gone horribly wrong.

  Was Miles really that much of a catch? Clarissa wrinkled her nose at the thought. By all accounts, he had been a creepy, inappropriate old geezer with a fondness for younger women. Gross. But then again, maybe that appealed to some women – the crazy ones!

  Even if Miles had been a sleaze, he hadn’t deserved to be murdered. Clarissa wanted to get justice for him. Besides, her own curiosity was driving her nuts. She had to find out who had killed him!

  “Okay, so let’s say he fell from a window,” Clarissa whispered to herself, preparing to concoct a hypothetical scenario. “Well, he would have been pushed,” she corrected herself. “He landed far enough from the building that he must have been shoved rather forcefully.”

  Twirling a lock of dark hair around her finger absentmindedly, Clarissa mulled that over. “That brings us back to the same issue,” she murmured. “The killer had to have been someone strong. And I just don’t see Nancy being able to physically lift Miles up and throw him.”

  She was almost certain the killer had to be a relatively fit male. Well, either that or a very strong woman. But there were no female bodybuilders on her list of suspects! And other than Daphne Connor’s boyfriend, there were no males on her list either.

  “Daphne’s boyfriend didn’t kill Miles,” Clarissa whispered to herself. “So what am I missing?”

  Clarissa looked directly up from the spot where Miles had landed. When her gaze landed on the window he must have tumbled from, she froze. Her blood ran cold as she tried to process what she had just discovered.

  Her mind was racing as she began to rethink everything she had thought she knew. And the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. She had been wrong about the killer’s identity right from the beginning! She had been blinded by her own biases.

  She didn’t want to believe it, and yet there it was right in front of her, plain as day.

  Clarissa leapt to her feet and began to run toward the building, brimming with terror.

  Chapter 21

  “Come on!” Clarissa urged as she paced outside the broken elevator. “Answer the phone!”

  Her chest felt tight and her stomach was in knots. She was desperate to reach her aunt. She was ninety-nine percent sure that Cliff Harrington had killed Miles Connor. And now Matilda was up there alone in an office with a murderer!

  Worse yet, Matilda was planning to discuss the investigation with Cliff. To her, it seemed innocent enough. But it wasn’t. To Cliff, it would probably seem like a threat. What if the discussion made him nervous? What if it made him snap?

  Clarissa’s aunt was in danger – and she wasn’t picking up her phone!

  Maybe nothing bad had happened. Maybe Matilda was simply ignoring Clarissa’s repeated calls after their little squabble. Clarissa hoped that was the case. She didn’t even want to think about the alternative.

  So the elevator wasn’t an option, as it was out of order. And unfortunately, Matilda wasn’t answering her phone – every call went to voicemail. That only left one option, Clarissa realized as she looked in the direction of the stairwell.

  Or did it?

  Time was of the essence. Taking the stairs all the way to the top floor of the tall building was an option, but not a very good one. It would take a while to get up there. What if it took too long? What if by the time Clarissa reached her aunt, it was too late?

  Thankfully, there was one other option. It was a petrifying one…but it could potentially work.

  Clarissa raced back outside and grabbed the broom. She looked up at the top floor of the building and gulped. It was so high up! And she was so scared of heights! But there was no time to hesitate. She had to move fast.

  Climbing onto the broomstick, Clarissa closed her eyes tightly. Her face scrunched up in an expression of concentration, she willed the broom to move. She felt her feet lift up off the ground as the magic began to work.

  It was like the broom had a mind of its own. But if Clarissa channeled her energy effectively enough, she could get inside t
he broom and bend it to her will. So she tried to do exactly that. At the same time, she tried not to fall – that wouldn’t end well.

  Fear raced through Clarissa’s every vein. Her blood ran cold as she desperately tried to think happy, calming thoughts. She was holding onto the broom handle so tightly that her hands hurt.

  She could feel herself floating higher and higher. She just wanted to be back on solid ground! Time passed excruciatingly slowly. Clarissa’s heart was pounding a mile a minute as she forced herself to focus on the terrifying task at hand.

  Surely she had to be near the top of the building by now.

  She opened one eye. Then she made the mistake of looking down.

  “Oh!” Clarissa gasped when she saw how far away the ground was.

  She was up above most of the trees now, and it felt all kinds of wrong. Against her better judgment, she snuck another peek at the ground below her. She could make out a tiny black speck down there that she thought must be Cat. She had to fight back the urge to scream.

  “Concentrate!” she told herself sternly. “If you mess this up, you and Matilda are goners!”

  Somehow, Clarissa managed to keep the broom in the air. It wobbled a time or two, nearly giving her a heart attack – but she managed to maintain her cool. Pretty soon she was able to peek into Cliff’s office window.

  She saw Cliff and Matilda sitting together on a couch. They were eating pizza and laughing. That was a relief! Unfortunately, Matilda’s back was to the window. There was no way to get her attention without also making her presence known to Cliff.

  “What do I do now?” Clarissa whispered to herself.

  She glanced up.

  She was already about a billion feet off the ground. What was a little more?

  Gritting her teeth in determination, Clarissa willed the broom to go even higher. Frighteningly, she seemed to be losing steam. It had been easy to get the broom a few feet off the ground. But the higher she went, the more gravity seemed to be tugging her down.

  Was this why Matilda had cautioned her against flying too high? Was she going to fall out of the sky and tumble to an untimely death? Terror gripped at Clarissa as she tried to force the broom to transport her to the roof.

  She didn’t want to die! Not like this! She had just bought a house, started her own newspaper and begun dating a guy who gave her butterflies every time he looked at her. Life was really good! Besides, who else would tolerate the intolerable black cat that ruled her life?

  No, she couldn’t die. She had to make this work. Failure wasn’t an option!

  It was time to get tough.

  “Stupid broom!” Clarissa hissed through clenched teeth. She was trying her best to sound threatening instead of totally beside herself with fear. “Go higher right this instant or…or…or I’ll haunt you from the grave!”

  She had no idea if that was a legitimate threat, or if the broom could even hear her. After all, brooms didn’t have ears…at least she didn’t think they did. Of course, up until recently she hadn’t thought brooms could fly, either. That showed how much she knew!

  Either the threat worked or the timing was coincidental. Clarissa wasn’t sure which it was, and she didn’t particularly care. All that mattered was that the broom jerked and wobbled…and then flew higher into the sky.

  “Yes!” Clarissa exclaimed in triumph. She could see the top of the roof. She would have pumped her fist in victory had that not required her to let go of the broom. She was still well aware that she wasn’t out of danger yet…nor was her aunt.

  “Move forward just a little bit,” Clarissa urged the broom.

  She was hovering right above the concrete barrier that ran around the perimeter of the roof. In another foot or so, she would be able to hop off the broom and jump onto solid ground. Easy-peasy, right?

  The broom had other ideas.

  It began to tremble beneath Clarissa.

  At first she wrote it off as yet another false alarm, but then the broom started to lose altitude. Clarissa opened her mouth in a silent scream, sure that she was knocking on death’s door. Then her hands shot out and she instinctively grabbed ahold of the concrete barrier.

  The broom fell from the sky like a star crashing down from space.

  It landed with an unceremonious thud on the cement sidewalk below the building.

  Thankfully, Clarissa didn’t go tumbling down with it. She wasn’t sure how, but she had somehow managed to scramble onto the concrete barrier at the last possible second. She was straddling it now, her face as white as a sheet.

  She rolled to the side and landed on the rooftop. She would have kissed it had she not been frozen with fear. So instead, she stared up at the night sky and tried to stop hyperventilating. She knew she had been lucky. Things could have ended very badly for her.

  “Matilda!” Clarissa suddenly remembered.

  She sat up with a start. Her head was spinning and her limbs felt like they were made of rubber. But that didn’t matter. Her aunt was presumably still in danger. That was what mattered! So even though she felt shaky, Clarissa hurried toward the door that led into the building.

  Just as she had suspected, it was locked. Apparently the lock she had cast a spell on and shattered had been replaced. That was a bummer. Oh well, she would just have to cast another spell to break this lock…

  Suddenly she realized she had left her handbag full of potions on the grass below.

  “What now?” Clarissa wondered, looking around helplessly.

  That was when she spotted the ivy.

  It grew up the side of the beautiful stone building, giving it an earthy, old world charm. The healthy green vines were thick and luscious – and they grew right past a window a few rooms down from Cliff’s office.

  Under ordinary circumstances, Clarissa never would have dreamed of climbing down the side of a very tall building. For one thing, she was afraid of heights. For another, she wasn’t completely insane. (Some may argue that last point.)

  The small town news reporter wasn’t a risk taker by any stretch of the imagination. She considered shopping at an unfamiliar grocery store an adventure, for goodness sake!

  But these were extraordinary circumstances. Clarissa was positive her unsuspecting aunt was inside the building with Miles Connor’s killer. And if Cliff had killed once, he may very well kill again. That fear was enough to spur Clarissa into action.

  Taking a deep breath, Clarissa carefully climbed over the concrete barrier. Her hands clung to it as she searched for solid footing. She managed to lower herself down the vine one painstaking inch at a time. Then, by some miracle, her feet found a ledge.

  “Please don’t be locked, please don’t be locked!” Clarissa begged as she reached for the window.

  Thankfully, it slid up with ease – even with her using only one hand. Maybe that was a stroke of incredible luck. But maybe it just made sense. What need was there to lock windows in a room that was a zillion storeys up? No one would be stupid enough to climb up there…

  Well, no one except Clarissa.

  She must have had a guardian angel – or guardian cat – because what she did next was nothing short of miraculous. The un-athletic, slightly overweight witch somehow managed to hoist herself through the open window.

  She tumbled into the empty office head over heels, landing hard on a solid oak desk.

  “Oomph!” she grunted as office supplies clattered to the floor.

  Clarissa climbed to her feet, still unable to believe what she had just accomplished. She noticed a pair of scissors sitting in a wicker container on the corner of the desk. She grabbed them and slipped them into her back pocket, just in case. Then she hurried out into the hallway.

  A second later, Clarissa burst in on her aunt and Cliff Harrington.

  They looked cozy as they sat there together on the couch enjoying their dinner. It appeared she had interrupted them in mid-flirt. And Matilda did not look happy about it.

  “What are you doing here?” Matilda demande
d, setting her pizza down.

  “Clarissa?” Cliff asked, looking confused. He stood up. “Can we help you?”

  “Matilda, I need you to come with me,” Clarissa said, ignoring Cliff completely.

  “No,” her aunt replied immediately. “I’m a little busy here.”

  “It’s important,” Clarissa insisted.

  “Your aunt said she’s busy,” Cliff interjected, taking a step toward Clarissa. She wasn’t sure if it was a menacing step, or just an ordinary step that seemed menacing now that she suspected him of being a murderer. Either way, it was enough to make her flinch.

  “There’s a family emergency,” Clarissa fibbed. “I need her!”

  “What’s the emergency?” Matilda asked suspiciously.

  “It’s um....uh…” How could Clarissa possibly be expected to come up with a convincing lie? After what she had just been through, it was a wonder she had the presence of mind to string words together into sentences at all!

  “Clarissa,” Matilda said disapprovingly. “There is no family emergency, is there? You’re bursting in here making things up to try to ruin my night. You’re angry with me. I get it. But this is uncalled for.”

  “Matilda, please listen!” Clarissa pleaded. “Just step outside with me and I’ll explain!”

  Cliff was looking at Clarissa strangely now. He seemed to have clued in to the fact that she didn’t like him. He crossed his arms and scowled at her. “If you have something to say, you can say it here,” he informed her.

  “It’s private,” Clarissa told him. “It’s um…it’s…I think my cat might be pregnant!” she blurted out, unable to come up with anything more convincing.

  Matilda gave her a strange look. “I thought your cat was male.”

  “Yes! That’s why it’s so weird!” Clarissa exclaimed desperately.

  Cliff rolled his eyes. “Goodbye, Clarissa,” he said before pushing her out of his office and shutting the door in her face. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw a smirk on his face. His charming façade had certainly worn away, that was for sure.