“It’s really not a big deal,” I said. “You aren’t replaceable.”
“I’m not?” Paws lifted his head hopefully.
“No, and certainly not by a rabbit,” I said. I leaned forward and winked.
The ghost cat appeared to take heart. “Exactly,” he said. “He didn’t do anything helpful, did he?”
Usually I’m not a fan of lying, but when it’s lie or be yelled at, I know which one to choose. “No, he didn’t do anything helpful.”
Paws rested his head on my hand and started to purr.
I told myself that maybe I should lie more often.
From around the side of the house I heard a yell, “I told them who hadn’t committed the barn crimes! One of a kind help!” Tank shouted.
Paws’ eyes flared open.
I groaned.
I had spent enough time at home recently, helping my aunt get my grandmother’s things in order and meeting with uninvited guests (some more welcome than others). The day after the fire I simply had to get out of the house.
There was one place I’d been sorely neglecting while I worked to trace dark witches and find the remains of missing hikers. Okay, with a bit of getting lost on the top of all that.
It was time for a visit to the library.
The library opened at nine, and I planned to be there bright and early. I didn’t even want to see what nonsense Lena had decided to print in the Gazette that morning.
“Hello, Lemmi! Good to see you,” called out Mrs. Snicks, the Mintwood librarian, in her sing-song voice. Mrs. Snicks was my partner in crime when I had something to protest, like tearing down a historical landmark, and she was also an awesome librarian.
“Hi, Mrs. Snicks,” I said. “How are you?”
“Oh, good. The usual. Eric is having a bit of trouble over at the cemetery, but nothing he can’t handle.”
“What’s the trouble?” I asked, figuring it probably had something to do with the ghosts.
“There’s a shed light that’s always on,” Mrs. Snicks explained with a frown. “Eric thinks he’s turned it off, but when he comes back the next day it’s on again. Very odd.”
Funnel, the bloodhound ghost dog that resided at the cemetery, was afraid of the dark.
“That’s totally inexplicable,” I said.
Mrs. Snicks gave a long sigh and a small smile. “I’m sure he’ll work it out. How can I help you? What brings you in here so early in the morning?”
“I was wondering where the maps of Mintwood Mountain are,” I said, trying to sound innocent. But Mrs. Snicks had been a teenager in the sixties; she saw straight through my lies.
“You’re just wondering about that right after they happened to discover the bodies of two of the hikers, but while they’re still missing the third,” said Mrs. Snicks.
“Yeah, I’m getting more into hiking,” I said. “I’ve gone twice in the past couple of weeks.”
“Sure you are, dear,” said Mrs. Snicks. Then she pointed down one aisle and said, “All the maps are down that way. You can spread them out on those big tables if you want. Just holler if you need any help.” And she went back to checking in books.
I wandered down the stacks of books until I reached several long drawers. The first few I looked at had tags for the town of Mintwood, but eventually I came to one marked “Mintwood Mountain.” Eagerly I pulled out a large map and carried it carefully over to one of the long tables Mrs. Snicks had pointed out.
I heard footsteps behind me and half turned to see who it was, but there was no one there. Suddenly feeling uneasy, I turned my attention to the map, figuring that the sooner I got out of there the better.
I had never been a very big fan of maps, which is silly, I know. It took me several minutes of concentration to determine where the parking lot was and where the main trail and its offshoots were. The offshoots were what I was concerned with. As I looked at the map I saw that the trail Kay, Kevin, and Chloe had taken was marked as dangerous. It wound upward and went past the ravine. The ravine was also marked as dangerous. The searchers hadn’t found the bodies sooner because the underbrush where they’d fallen was so thick; it wasn’t a trail advised for beginners or for anybody who wasn’t willing to pay close attention. Kay had said that Chloe had directed them there, and I wondered why she would do such a thing.
I was going to have to ask the three of them myself, especially Chloe, once I found her, which I was determined to do before too much more time went by. Knowing that the day was getting on, I quickly put the map away and left the library, giving Mrs. Snicks a wave as I went.
I went past the Twinkle Costume Shop hoping to see Liam, but there was a sign on his door saying he’d be back in five, so I decided to wander around downtown while I waited. For once I didn’t need coffee and wasn’t heading for the Daily Brew.
I was walking down the street gazing into shop windows when a strong hand grabbed my arm. I tried to yell as the hand pulled me into the seldom visited gift shop; in the summer the store was kind of a tourist attraction, but for most of the year, like now, it was very quiet. I had no idea how the owner stayed in business, except that he must own the space, so he didn’t have to pay rent.
The hand that was pulling at me was so strong that I was off the street before I could get a word out. For a brief moment I continued to struggle, but quickly decided it was fruitless. My attacker was very strong.
A shot of fear raced through me and I wondered how I was going to get out of this fix. I tried to get a look at the man propelling me, but he was wearing a cloak.
Once we were well inside the store, the cloak came off. I gasped.
“Mayor Clabberd!” I exclaimed.
He held a finger to his lips and glanced around fearfully. The shop owner was asleep at the desk, an old man snoring away with his head propped on his hand. Looking more at ease, the mayor led me to the furthest corner away from the checkout counter. There, nestled between Mintwood Mountain t-shirts and silly plates, he said, “Have you made any progress with the ghost business?”
He was stressed in a way that I had never seen before; usually he was the picture of composure. I shook my head to tell him I hadn’t, and felt bad when his face fell.
“You have to find out what’s behind it. Now there’s been a fire, and I’m getting blamed for that, too,” he said, his voice urgent.
“Ghosts can’t cause fires,” I said. The mayor raised his eyebrows at that, but didn’t comment. Technically, ghosts probably could cause fires if Paws could run around carrying notes, but what did the mayor know about that? I was just trying to reassure him.
“None of it was done by a ghost,” I whispered. “I’ll find the cause of the fire; it was probably an accident. As for the missing tools, we’ll find those too. We just haven’t yet.”
“You have to find them before election day, otherwise I’m doomed. I can’t give up being the mayor. What am I if not the mayor? Everyone who is not the mayor is dull,” he said.
Given that he was talking to somebody who was not the mayor, I wasn’t so sure he was right. Then again, I was dull, at least by some measures.
But the mayor seemed to realize he’d gone too far. Looking contrite, he said, “I’m sorry. I’m just very upset. I never expected anything like this to happen. The only solution I came up with was to come to you.”
“What made you think I could find a ghost?” I asked.
“Your grandmother offered to find ghosts all the time,” he shrugged.
It took everything I had not to roll my eyes. Of course she had.
My grandmother had thought it was hilarious that everybody joked about her being a witch when she really was a witch, and she’d played it up as much as possible. The fact that the mayor now believed she had somehow been a witch who could talk to ghosts wasn’t a side effect she had probably anticipated, and I was left holding the bag. “I told you before and I’ll tell you again: I’ll get to the bottom of it, and it wasn’t ghosts,” I insisted.
T
he mayor didn’t look reassured by my words, but he must have realized that he couldn’t argue with me any further.
“Please come to me as soon as you have news. Pretend you’re stealing cars and want to confess to me or something equally believable,” he said.
He was so desperate not to be seen with me that I had to make up a lie? And how was my stealing cars believable anyhow! I had a fleeting thought that maybe the mayor had gone off the deep end.
He must have read some of this thought train in my face, because he said, “Your car is a junk pile. Of course it makes sense that you’d try to steal one.”
This did not reassure me abut the mayor’s state of mind, but the shop door’s bell twittered before I could gather my wits to reply, letting us know that someone else had come in. I turned to look at the door, and when I turned back there was a cloaked figure running away from me down the aisles. I had no idea that the mayor was that fast. Shaking my head, I made for the door.
As I left I saw that it was Liam’s mother walking up to the counter. She noticed me looking, but she didn’t give the slightest hint of recognition or pleasure when she saw me. Instead, she turned away with a sniff.
This town sure was something else.
I had a lot of questions to answer, so after my unexpected and exceedingly strange encounter with the mayor, I decided to skip visiting with Liam for the moment. Instead, I spent the afternoon helping my aunt and mulling over all the ongoing mysteries.
Eventually we took a break to practice basic spells, most of which I still wasn’t any good at. Still, my aunt thought it was very important that I learned two spells in particular. One: controlling the wind as I had done when Ellie attacked; and two: a more defensive spell that involved disappearing objects as they came flying at my head. I wasn’t really sure who she thought was going to send objects careening at me, but I supposed it was enough that she did.
Later that evening, after we ate dinner and cleaned up, Charlie, Greer, and I set out for downtown Mintwood. We had a couple of ghosts to find and talk to.
“I can’t believe all these campaign signs for Jimmy,” said Charlie.
“How did your interview with him go?” said Greer.
“I think he has a thing for Lemmi,” said Charlie mischievously.
We had just gotten out of my car, and that comment made me stop dead. The downtown was pretty quiet, all the shops having enclosed a couple of hours ago. There were still lights on in the mayor’s office, probably the mayor burning the midnight oil until he knew his job was safe. But there was no one on the streets.
“Excuse me?” I said glaring at Charlie.
“You heard me, or is there wax between your ears? I said I think he has a thing for you,” Charlie replied.
When I pretended to stick my finger in my ear and get wax out, Charlie made a face and Greer laughed.
“Fine, I will never tease you again,” said Charlie, totally grossed out.
“He does not have a thing for me,” I said.
“Oh, please,” said Charlie in exasperation. “He had no intention of talking to the paper and he was never going to agree to an interview. Then, when your name came up, he agreed to an interview immediately. He does not like Jasper, though.”
“As it happens, I don’t think Jasper likes him,” I said.
“Color me surprised,” said Greer, rolling her eyes.
“What else did he say?” I prodded.
“Not much,” said Charlie. “I think he really only cares about the speed limit law.”
“You don’t think he’s actually terribly concerned that this town is filled with ghosts?” said Greer, smirking.
Charlie scoffed, “That is a pretty silly notion.”
“Oh, now it’s a silly notion?” I said. “What happened to it definitely is?”
“I’ve had a change of heart,” said Charlie.
“Does that change of heart involve a certain ghost rabbit?” Greer asked. Hank had made quite an impression on Charlie when he categorically stated that whoever or whatever had taken the tools, it wasn’t a ghost. For some unfathomable reason, she had taken his word over ours.
“I’ve decided that stakeouts are one of my favorite parts of this job,” Charlie explained.
“I think they’re boring,” said Greer. “We sit around waiting for something that may or may not happen.”
“In the case of the skeleton in the barn, it was very useful. We caught two criminals,” Charlie pointed out.
“The secretary wasn’t a criminal. She was just trying to keep her sister’s legacy from being ruined,” said Greer.
“Isn’t that obstruction of justice?” said Charlie.
“I don’t know. I don’t watch crime shows,” said Greer.
We walked around for a bit, then sat in the Beetle looking out over the dark buildings and Main Street, Mintwood. There were no ghosts in sight. After an hour of watching, we decided to stay just a little longer before giving up and going home.
When we had just about had it, Charlie pointed dramatically ahead of us and cried, “There!”
Near to where we’d stood when we watched Jimmy News at his rally were Kevin and Kay, wandering around the gazebo.
“Let’s go,” I said. We climbed out of my car and went over to them. They saw us coming and waved merrily.
“Hi, we were wondering when we’d see you again,” said Kevin.
“We’ve been looking for you,” I said.
“They brought our bodies here. In a couple of days I think we’ll be going home,” said Kay excitedly. “I guess our families are going to get a real burial. That’ll be nice.”
I agreed with her that that would be nice.
“Have you made any headway finding Chloe?” Kevin asked.
Kay gave him a dirty look.
“No, not yet. We went back to the mountain and looked around, but we couldn’t find her,” I said.
“You think she’s still on the mountain?” Kay asked, momentarily forgetting that she was mad at Kevin.
“Her brother certainly does. He doesn’t think she would have run off, and if she had, he said they’d surely have heard from her by now,” I explained.
“I certainly wouldn’t put it past her to run off, but I guess he’s right that if she had she would have contacted her family eventually.”
“I looked at the trail maps in the library today, and I saw that you were on one of the most difficult and dangerous trails,” I said. I was hedging. I really wanted to ask about the love triangle that Chloe’s brother had brought up, but I didn’t know how. I had a feeling Kay wouldn’t exactly appreciate it.
“Yes, it seemed like that to us once we got there. I asked her why we couldn’t just stay on the main trail, then branches wouldn’t have been getting in my hair and stuff. But she insisted,” said Kay bitterly.
Kevin looked uncomfortable.
“She wanted an adventure, maybe?” I said.
Kay shrugged. Given what had happened, there was probably no explanation that would satisfy her.
“You said Chloe had never been hiking before?”
“Not much. She wasn’t an outdoor kind of girl. I could see her getting lost on the mountain as she tried to get down,” said Kevin.
“The most likely explanation is that she also had an accident,” I agreed.
“Are you going to go look for her again?” he asked.
“Yes, I am,” I said. “But there’s one other thing. Her brother seemed to think that there was some . . . drama among the three of you?”
“She was dramatic, yes, and she couldn’t leave my boyfriend alone, if that’s what you’re referring to. She suggested we all climb up the mountain and try to mend fences or whatever. We ended up falling down a cliff, and she ended up leaving us there, so I don’t really think anything was mended,” said Kay. “In fact, I would like to see her ghost again and give her a piece of my mind.”
Kevin had stayed quiet, but now he spoke up, “Chloe and I were friends, and she was
really jealous when I started dating Kay. We all tried to be friends, but in hindsight that wasn’t such a good idea.”
An idea was forming in my mind about what might have happened, and about how jealous Chloe had really been. But the only way for me to find out if my idea was right was to talk to her myself. The last thing I wanted to do was climb up the mountain again at night, but this time I intended to take a map and better equipment, to make sure there was no scenario where I would have to ask Jasper Wolf for help.
“Look, we’re going home now. I really don’t care about this, and I don’t want to spend another second thinking about Chloe,” said Kay.
“I agree,” Kevin said, putting a bracing arm around his ghost girlfriend’s shoulders.
“I understand. I just have to find Chloe,” I explained.
“Good luck with that. She’s a real peach,” said Kay.
“Have you heard Detective Cutter say anything about what happened to you two?” I said.
At this, both Kay and Kevin looked uncomfortable. “He doesn’t seem to think we fell,” said Kevin. “Given that I hit my head, I don’t really remember much, but I do have snapshots running through my mind at times. I remember seeing the cliff and wanting to look over the edge, and that’s the end of it. I really can’t imagine that I was so careless that I would have fallen accidentally.”
“The trouble is, there’s no other explanation than that I fell over,” said Kay.
The longer this case went on, the more sure I was about the fact that they had been pushed. But I didn’t want to upset either of them, given how excited they were to be leaving Mintwood at last. After a few more minutes of conversation, during which Charlie and Greer wished them well, the three of us were on our way back to my car.
“What do you think really happened?” Charlie asked.
“I’m not sure, but I do know that we have to talk to Chloe. I think everything revolves around her,” I said.
“I would agree with that,” said Greer dryly.
We was just about to head out when I saw a flicker of light in the gift shop. I turned to look, and sure enough there was another flicker of light. It almost looked like a ghost. When my friends saw me stop, they both glanced in the same direction.
A Witch on Mintwood Mountain (Witch of Mintwood Book 4) Page 15
