Hansen Gregory got out of the car and walked up to the porch. I opened the door before he could knock, and he smiled when he saw me. He was carrying a bag and a thermos.
“Hey Hansen, what brings you here?” I said.
“Hey, sorry for barging in like this. Was that the mayor I saw driving away?” he asked.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said.
Hansen frowned at me, but didn’t push the point. “I called the Gazette looking for Charlie this morning,” he said, “and Lena told me she was out sick. Given that I was already in Mintwood, I thought I should stop by and bring her a get well basket.”
Greer came to stand at my shoulder, and we both stared at Hansen as if we’d never seen anything like him before. He was bringing a care package? He knew what a care package was? My mind was about to explode.
“She’s actually not here right now. I mean, no, sorry, she’s sleeping,” Greer stuttered. “Sorry.”
Hansen shrugged and let Greer’s bad lying go without comment. “I wasn’t expecting to see her given that Lena said she was sick. But I know she has an appointment with Chloe’s brother this afternoon, and since I also know she’ll try to keep it at all costs, I wanted to make sure she had some sustenance.”
He handed me a bag from the Daily Brew and the thermos. “Next time I bring goodies I’ll bring them from Caedmon’s excellent bakery, but I didn’t think Charlie and I were there yet.”
He had plans for the relationship to progress! Charlie would be so pleased!
“Thanks so much. I’m sure she’ll really appreciate it,” I said. It took everything I had not to look in the bag to see what he’d gotten her for pastries.
Hansen smiled and nodded. “It’s not a big deal. Again, sorry for barging in. I could’ve sworn I saw the mayor driving away.”
“The mayor is usually very busy on weekdays and not driving around the back woods of Mintwood,” I said.
He grinned indulgently, stepped off the porch with a friendly wave, and headed back to his car.
As we closed the door firmly on Hansen Gregory, Greer took the opportunity to moan about all the company we were forced to entertain at the farmhouse. “I have no idea how we’re this popular,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’ve had about enough of it with visitors for today. Can I close the gates?”
“We don’t have gates,” I said.
“Can we add them to the list of repairs and improvements?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said. It wasn’t as if we were going to start on that list of repairs any time soon, let alone finish it.
“What about performing a spell?” Greer suggested.
“I couldn’t even conjure a lantern, let alone a gate,” I said.
Our banter was interrupted by the sound of a door, so we headed to the kitchen to meet Charlie, who was coming to investigate what Hansen had wanted.
“Oh my goodness, you’re here!” Greer exclaimed.
We all sat down in the breakfast nook, and I told Charlie that Hansen had brought her goodies from the Daily Brew. When I handed her the gift, she recoiled as if he had offered her a basket filled with snakes.
“You have the weirdest reactions to normal gestures of kindness,” said Greer, shaking her head. “Here, let me look.” She took the bag from Charlie, who was only too happy to give it up. Charlie braced her chin on her fist and watched Greer open it.
“No way,” said Greer, peering into the bag.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It really is snakes!” Greer exclaimed.
“You’re ridiculous!” said Charlie.
“He brought her croissants,” said Greer.
Croissants of all kinds were Charlie’s favorite. When she was having a bad day she had a croissant; when she was having a good day she had two.
“How could he possibly know I like croissants?” said Charlie.
“He’s a reporter. He’s observant,” I said. “By the way, you’re looking much better.”
Despite her ordeal the night before, Charlie looked fine, if a little tired. She perked up when I said she looked like her normal self.
“Good, because my plan for this afternoon and Chloe’s brother isn’t going to work if I look like a dirty mop,” she said.
“No, you look like a perfectly clean mop,” said Greer.
Charlie rolled her eyes and reached into the bag to fish out a croissant. We both looked at her questioningly as she took one great big bite. “What? He did give them to me.”
“Are you going to say thank you?” wondered Greer.
“I haven’t decided yet.” Charlie went bright red.
“He did seem concerned about you,” I said.
“He’s concerned about this story. Everything he does is a calculated manipulation,” Charlie assured us.
“I highly doubt that. I feel like if he was trying to manipulate you, he would be doing a better job,” said Greer.
Charlie, already polishing off one croissant and starting on a second, asked, “What do you mean?”
“Well, you hate him, so if he’s trying to manipulate you to let him into your good graces, he’s failing miserably,” said Greer.
“Of course that’s what he’s doing. He isn’t as smart as you think he is,” said Charlie sagely. Even she didn’t really sound like she believed it, though.
Greer fished out a croissant from the bag and started eating it despite Charlie’s glare. “My payment for putting up with your nonsense.”
“How many croissants did he get us?” asked Charlie.
“Eight,” said Greer.
Charlie sat back with a happy smile.
Greer stayed home that afternoon. As she put it, she’d had enough of visitors and fun to last until evening, when we intended to visit Liam and then climb Mintwood Mountain again.
So it was just Charlie and I who went to meet with Chloe’s brother Vinny.
We had originally been scheduled to meet Vinny at the Gazette offices, but at the last minute he had suggested that we meet at the mountain. Charlie liked the idea, because she knew Lena wouldn’t be thrilled that I was there for an interview, and this way Lena would never know.
When we got to the mountain we found a tall man just coming down the main trail. Vinny was good-looking in a lumberjack sort of way, a big guy wearing a green flannel shirt and a bandanna tied around his scraggly brown hair. He had a big smile and looked like a really nice guy. Sometimes you could just tell.
“Hi, I’m Charlie, and this is my roommate Lemmi,” said Charlie. “Sorry for your loss.”
He reached out his hand and introduced himself, then asked, “Are you both reporters?”
“Just me,” said Charlie. “Lemmi is job shadowing.”
It wouldn’t be too long before that excuse wouldn’t work anymore, but for this time Vinny took the explanation at face value and it didn’t seem to bother him that he was talking to both of us.
“I just keep coming here and looking for my sister. I thought maybe we could walk around the trails while we talked,” he said.
“Where do you live?” Charlie asked.
“I live in New Hampshire, a couple hours away, but I come here whenever I can. It’s probably not often enough given that we haven’t found her,” he grimaced.
“So you don’t think she made it off the mountain?” Charlie asked.
“Definitely not,” he said. “She didn’t know the first thing about hiking, and I have no idea why she wanted to be out here. Well, not much of a one anyway. Besides, if she did make it out of here and somebody came and picked her up, we would’ve seen her by now, or at least heard from her. She wouldn’t have just vanished. There was nothing about Chloe that said quiet.”
“So, when you heard that Kevin and Kay’s bodies had been found, were you hoping that she was with them?” Charlie said.
“As awful as it sounds, yeah, because as I said, I don’t think she made it off the mountain. It would be nice to find her remains and give h
er a proper burial. I figured she must be with Kevin and Kay, but then the detective said there were just two bodies, and Chloe’s wasn’t one of them. Maybe hers is still right near theirs, and we just haven’t looked hard enough,” he said.
I knew for a fact that that wasn’t true, but we couldn’t tell him so.
“If none of them liked hiking, what were they doing here in the first place?” wondered Charlie.
“How do you know no one liked hiking?” Vinny asked.
“Oh, it must be in my notes somewhere. I’ve read a lot of articles about them,” Charlie hedged.
He relaxed at that explanation and nodded. “I don’t think my sister had ever been before. Maybe once or twice. I have no idea what she was thinking when she decided to go.”
I decided to break my role of not talking during Charlie’s interviews, because I wanted to prod him a bit. “Are you sure you don’t have any idea?”
“I mean, not really,” he said. “It’s just, those three were very close.”
“What do you mean by that? It’s true that Kevin and Kay were a couple, right?” Charlie asked.
“Yeah, I never liked Kevin. My sister did, though,” he said bitterly.
Charlie gave me a look that said, Now we’re getting somewhere.
“Your sister liked Kevin, like romantically?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah, they’d all known each other for years, and Kevin and my sister had always flirted, and then Kay decided she wanted Kevin, and then it was all over,” he said. “Kevin decided they should all stay friends, like that wasn’t a terrible idea, and of course my sister couldn’t let him go. She decided she’d rather be the third wheel than walk away.”
“Did Kay know that your sister liked Kevin?” I said.
“I’m sure she did. My sister wasn’t exactly subtle. Don’t get me wrong, she had a lot of great qualities, but she said what was on her mind and she pined after what she wanted, and she had always wanted Kevin,” he said.
The plot thickened.
“Hopefully they’ll find your sister soon,” said Charlie.
“It sure would bring my family peace after all this time,” he said. “It almost doesn’t seem fair that the other two were found. Now their families get to take proper care of them. It’s something I’ve been regretting for the last nine months, that I couldn’t at least give my sister a proper burial.” He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck in frustration.
It wasn’t long before we made our way back to the cars. We had been looking for signs of the missing hiker, but only halfheartedly, and of course we hadn’t found anything at all. But it didn’t matter, because we’d be coming back later that night.
Chapter Eight
Just before the Main Street stores closed that evening, Greer, Charlie, and I went to visit Liam. The downtown had already been transformed into a battleground. Jimmy News had either found somebody who made signs really quickly or had already had them made when he threw his hat into the ring as a mayoral candidate.
“My, my, the mayor must be upset,” muttered Charlie. “I might have to do a story on this for tomorrow.”
“The signs are everywhere,” said Greer, but then, after a look around, she amended, “I guess that isn’t entirely true. None of the stores are featuring them.”
To my surprise, the stores weren’t featuring signs for either candidate.
“They’re trying to stay neutral, but I’d bet my hat they’re all going to vote for Mayor Clabberd,” said Greer.
“It’s an awfully nice hat,” said Charlie, examining her friend’s beanie. “If only we knew how they were going to vote, I’d make a bet about it with you.”
“We can bet on something else,” said Greer eagerly.
Charlie bit her lip, thinking. Finally she said, “Let’s bet on whether Farmer Franklin has ghosts.”
“I was hoping to bet on something about the election, but I’ll settle for that,” said Greer.
“What exactly are you betting?” I asked.
“A month of dishes,” said Charlie.
Greer shook her head. “No way. I already do all the cooking, I’m not doing the dishes too.”
“But it’s perfect for you, because if you have to do dishes you don’t have to cook,” said Charlie.
“No, because I know you’d cook just to spite me,” said Greer.
“Okay, maybe I would,” Charlie grinned.
“Let’s bet a bag of croissants,” said Greer.
“I don’t really need to bet that, because I have a croissant deliveryman. But I suppose I can humor you,” said Charlie charitably.
“That’s so good of you,” said Greer.
“Thank goodness we’re here,” I said. And I flung myself into the Twinkle Costume Shop.
“Evening,” said Liam, throwing up his hands. The store was empty, and he couldn’t have looked happier to see us.
“Business awesome?” Greer asked.
“It’s good,” Liam said. “I’m just tired at the end of a long day, and it’s nice to see friendly faces.”
We wandered around the store briefly, taking in Liam’s stock of new, cool-looking clothes. Pop music was blaring from the speakers as always.
But Liam wasn’t one to wait patiently for his daily dose of gossip. “So how about your aunt and my mother,” he said, cutting straight to the chase and leaning over his counter excitedly.
I had never met anyone else who loved gossip so much. He was a man after my own heart.
“Yeah, about that. I had no idea how much they didn’t like each other,” I said.
“I think if we hadn’t been there they would’ve had a shouting match,” said Liam in a tone that said he was sorry he would have missed it.
“Did either of you manage to find out why they each hate the other one?” Charlie asked.
“I tried to get it out of my mother, but she refused to talk about it. She acted like I was saying something really horrible and talking about something embarrassing, like her feet. She hates talking about her feet.” He rolled his eyes.
“I hardly tried with Aunt Harriet,” I said. “I brought Gerry up once, and she just gave me this cold stare. I didn’t try again.” I shivered a bit at the memory.
“It must stem from back in high school. I bet it was a boy,” said Liam. Then he paused and wrinkled his nose. “I know I have a father, but it’s hard for me to envision my mom dating.”
“Maybe in high school there was a love triangle. We’ve had a lot of those recently,” said Charlie.
“Is that what the hikers were?” Liam’s radar for news told him exactly what Charlie might be referring to.
When all three of us stared at him in shock, he laughed. “Oh, please. That’s the first thing I thought when I heard about it. What girl wants to go hiking with a couple?”
“Chloe’s brother does seem to think she liked Kevin an awful lot,” said Charlie.
“Maybe your mom and my aunt liked the same guy in high school,” I suggested.
“We know it couldn’t have been my dad, since she didn’t meet him until college. Has your aunt ever dated anyone?” Liam was determined to solve this riddle.
“Not that she’s ever told me about,” I said. “My mom would probably know, but she’s in Costa Rica.”
My mom and I had never been especially close, and it had gotten worse when my powers appeared. Now we exchanged cards every once in a while, but that was about it. It made me sad, but I tried not to think about it too much.
“Well, if you get any information, let me know, and I’ll do the same. We have to get to the bottom of this,” said Liam. “My reputation as a snoop depends on it.”
We had just enough time to go home, grab some food, and pick up Paws before heading to Mintwood Mountain. My aunt was busy reading in the living room and didn’t want to come with us. “I’m too old to be climbing up the mountain in the dead of night. That’s what you young people are for,” she said.
“I don’t want to go back up the
mountain either,” said Paws. “Can I be too old too?”
“How do you expect us to solve the Missing Hiker Mystery if we don’t go up the mountain?” I asked. “You think another ghost is just going to show up at my back door?”
“It’s worth a shot to just wait for that to happen,” he said.
“No, we have to go,” I said firmly.
“Just keep the ghost away from me,” he said.
“You’re a ghost yourself. What do you have against them?” Greer asked, as if she was genuinely curious.
“I don’t mind ghosts, I just mind the mountain ghosts,” he said.
Usually Paws was all too happy to get off the property. In fact, he had insisted that I wear my green jeweled necklace all the time so he could go with me on adventures whenever he pleased. I had never seen him move so slowly toward the car as he did tonight.
“I’ll go,” said the ghost rabbit Tank, hopping over to us and stubbing out his cigar on the ground. Paws looked so furious at the other ghost’s suggestion that I thought his tail might break in two.
“You will do no such thing,” hissed the cat.
“Who died and left you in charge?” Tank said.
“All of us,” Karen called.
“You don’t get to say where I go and don’t go,” said Tank.
“You don’t have a jewel,” Paws pointed out desperately.
It was true, Paws always wore his special cat collar with the bright green jewel on it. Charlie and Greer could see him even when we were off the property, because they had magical jewelry as well. Tank had no such collar and no such jewel.
“I don’t know if we have any more collars in the basement. I can check tomorrow,” I said to Tank, “but I don’t think you can come tonight. Thanks for the offer. It’s really helpful. It’s nice to have a pet who wants to help.”
Paws scoffed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m nothing but help. I’m the catsonification of help. Go get a dictionary, look up the picture of help and you’ll see me there.”
A Witch on Mintwood Mountain (Witch of Mintwood Book 4) Page 9
