A Cold Spell

by Stacey Alabaster

  “So that’s not a boyfriend of yours then?” he asked. “I did see the two of you chatting a little earlier.”

  “Nope! I am very single.”

  He looked pleased to hear this. “You should come with me to the employee dance in the hall tonight.”

  I’d known about the dance, but because I hadn’t even worked there for a week, I hadn’t even considered attending as I thought it would be a little strange. I knew that Vicky wouldn’t be there as she was already offended that they’d booked a band that wasn’t hers. “But they didn’t know you when they made the booking originally,” I had pointed out, which didn’t really ease the offense that much. Anyway, she had other plans. So without Vicky, I really hadn’t been keen to go.

  “Oh, I hadn’t really planned…” I didn’t really love the sound of spending my free after-hours time at work, but maybe Dean would be good company. He was super cute. “Is this a date?” I asked him.

  “Sure,” he said with a smile. “If you want it to be.”

  Did I want it to be?

  Akiro looked awfully busy with this friend of his. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, and I grimaced a little and turned back to Dean.

  “I will be there.”

  This was, apparently, the most important meeting the coven had ever had, and we were in crisis mode. All heads had to be put together to come up with a solution to this grave and terrible problem. Our full attention and input were needed.

  I kept checking the time, though.

  “This is kind of important,” Vicky said, waving toward a still very frozen Geri, who was standing in the middle of Prudence’s kitchen. “A member of our coven is just a touch frozen. The leader of our coven no less.”

  “The Old Swift Town dance is important too,” I said. What I couldn’t figure out is how a dozen bright, young, experienced witches, all putting their heads together and trying to come up with a solution, weren’t able to figure out how to reverse the spell. And I was pretty sure I was only there as punishment. Like they all knew that I had somewhere else to be, but they wanted me to see that I was putting them all out. But I was novice witch! It wasn’t like I had any tips for unfreezing Geri.

  To be honest, things seemed a lot calmer—and maybe more smoothly managed—with Geri as frozen as a block of ice. Prudence had stepped up as leader, and she was giving us all a lot more of free rein. She wasn’t as old-fashioned as Geri, but Geri was 200 years old, so most people weren’t as old-fashioned as her.

  I glanced over at Vicky. She knew I was going to the dance and even though she thought it was a slight betrayal for me to listen to a live band that she wasn’t a part of, she was nodding at me. “I’ll keep them distracted and you slip out the side,” she whispered.

  “Thanks!” I whispered back as I hurried out the door. “I owe you one!”

  I raced into the hall and stopped, breathless, looking around for Dean. I was an hour later than I’d said I would meet him, and I hadn’t even been able to text him because I didn’t have his number.

  He was wearing a full suit and tie as he approached me. Employees didn’t have to dress in period costume for the party.

  “I thought I had been stood up,” he said with an awkward laugh as though it was a joke. Or maybe that was what he thought I’d actually done and I’d only changed my mind at the last moment.

  “No, just witch—” I’d been about to say witch stuff. My gosh, I really needed to sleep. “—which dress to wear,” I said, pleased with the way I had pivoted and saved myself.

  He frowned and looked down at me curiously. “But you are wearing the same dress you wore to work today.”

  Yeah, well, I didn’t have time to decide on which dress with all the witch stuff.

  “Can’t go past a classic,” I said and grabbed a drink from the waiter passing by with the tray. Great. A margarita. I was sick of seeing frozen things by that stage.

  Not the best start to our first date, but I was determined to turn it around. He was cute, and we’d gotten along so well until this whole mess of me being late to the dance.

  “Hey, I’m sorry I was late,” I said as I asked him if he wanted to dance and we started to head toward the dance floor. The band had just started playing a slow song and we gingerly held onto each other as we started to sway in time with the music. “It was nothing to do with you, honestly. I’ve just been neglecting my life outside of Old Swift Town, and it is starting to catch up with me.”

  “Anything you want to talk about?” he asked in a sweet way as we continued to sway. They were definitely not as good as Vicky’s band. She had nothing to be worried about.

  There was a crash at the other end of the hall, and a woman shrieked.

  It was Marissa. We both turned to see her drenched in frozen margarita while the caterer looked at her in apologetically. Dean glanced over at first as she was starting to yell, but then turned away and focused back on me. The band had changed to a fast number, and I was completely distracted now by this scene playing out before us. “You are going to pay for this,” she said, seething as she balled both her hands into fists.

  “You can send the dry-cleaning bill to the company,” the poor caterer said, but Marisa was shaking her head.

  “No. You are going to pay a far greater price than a dry-cleaning bill.” She was glaring at him, and it looked like her whole body was trembling. “I will make sure that you never work here in Old Swift Town ever again. Or ANYWHERE in Swift Valley ever again.”

  The whole party had gone completely silent as they stopped and watched in shock, and the band even skipped a few beats. Huh. I would have to tell Vicky about that.

  “Whoa, is this typical behavior of hers?” I asked Dean, my mouth falling open. I was already planning to call Beth as soon as I got a chance to tell her how close we were to calling this one in.

  Dean nodded a little. “Well, yes, she can be a little hard to get along with.”

  And it just got better and better, so to speak. Even though the band had been instructed to play louder and faster to distract the crowd, I saw Marisa growing bigger with anger like she was about to explode. She even reached out and tried to grab the caterer, almost clawing at him. The only thing she managed to get was the collar of his shirt before she was escorted out by Marvin.

  “Did you see that?” I said to Dean. I hadn’t realized I was grinning. I certainly hadn’t meant to be. I was going to have to work on my poker face, wasn’t I? I was murmuring to myself as well. “This is all making perfect sense,” I said.

  He was frowning at me.

  “What’s really going on here?” Dean said as took a step back from me. “Why are you so interested in Marisa? Or Teresa, for that matter? Who are you really, Ruby?”

  But I didn’t have time to explain. I was feeling low on air, and I didn’t want to get caught. “Gotta run!”

  Oh my gosh, the corset was so tight and even being outside in the fresh air didn’t give me any relief. Wearing it after hours was insane, but with everything that had happened, I hadn’t even had time to take it off. It was dark outside, so I decide to at least loosen it a little. I tugged at the ribbon at the back and the buttons, but I couldn’t get the darn thing undone without seeing what I was doing. It seemed to be stuck.

  There was another option. I just wasn’t sure I should do it.

  Well, one little spell wouldn’t hurt, would it? Vicky had taught me her spell for making items of clothes larger, so all I needed to do was to make the corset a little bigger and I’d be able to escape from it.

  I said the magic words. There was a tingling and a small feeling like I had been shocked. A few sparks flew off and I jumped, but I was free.

  But I didn’t know that Dean had followed me and seen the entire thing.

  5

  It was good to be back in friendly territory. Actually, it was just nice to be out of a corset and to be experiencing life in the 21st century. Modernity. I never thought I would miss the top forty pop songs on the
radio so much, but they sounded so full and amazingly upbeat. I’d had enough of hearing the 1870s folk band music, no offense to Vicky at all. It was just that eight hours a day of it was a lot. And out here, I could eat actual soft candy. And soft cupcakes. And ice cream. And all the things that were available in 2019.

  “Do you want another one of those?” Akiro asked, looking at my empty plate. I had consumed an entire cookie dough cupcake in under thirty seconds. I nodded and said I would love one. “And you know how I like it as well,” I said, and he laughed.

  Right. Poker face. I tried not to grin too much at Beth as she walked in. It was probably unprofessional. Actually, it might be downright insensitive for me to be happy to find out who had killed her best friend.

  We’d decided to have the catchup at Akiro’s cafe because I was craving social interaction with people not dressed in period costume. Even though my poor new office was being very neglected lately.

  She seemed eager, if not apprehensive, to hear what I had uncovered at the park. I was trying to seem ultra-professional when Akiro approached the table and set down my plate. “Here’s your cookie dough cupcake with extra frosting and pink sprinkles.” He glanced over at Beth. “Can I get you anything?”

  She screwed up her face. “Er. No, I don’t eat sugar.”

  I pushed my plate aside and tried awkwardly to ignore it. It just sat there like a very pretty rock between us.

  “I am pretty certain that Marissa Jones is the one who killed Teresa,” I said as I laced my hands together, taking a very somber tone. The pink sprinkles kept catching my eye. “She had the motive, and she has a violent streak. I caught her physically threatening another member of staff.”

  Beth sat up a little straighter. There was a flash of hope in her eyes, even though she also looked incredibly sad. “So, you can prove that she killed Teresa?”

  “Well, no, I will still need some proof,” I said, clearing my throat. I mean, I hadn’t quite gotten the smoking gun, so to speak. So far, it was all circumstantial. But it was still strong evidence.

  Beth looked a little disappointed.

  “But don’t worry,” I reassured her. “That will all be taken care of in the next day or two. I am going to talk to her and get her to admit to it.”

  “Then we can go to the police?” she asked me, looking hopeful again.

  I nodded. “That is the plan.”

  When she left, I could finally pull my cupcake back to me and dig into it. It was so delicious. Being the super helpful favorite customer that I was, I even brought my empty plate up to the counter and handed it to Akiro.

  Things had felt slightly awkward since we’d run into each other at Old Swift Town, but maybe it was all in my head. “So you know…” I asked, thinking for her name. “Umm, is it Abby?”

  He laughed and leaned forward with his palms on the counter. “Ah, yeah, she’s an old friend of mine. We used to work together at Dark Horse, you know that old cafe that shut down. The one I worked at before I bought this place.”

  I nodded. “Oh yeah, didn’t you two bond over your love of ‘LARPing’ at one stage?” I said with a laugh. ‘LARP’ was an acronym that stood for Live Action Role Play. Mostly roleplaying events that had happened in the past. Or events that had never happened, like an invasion of elves trying to take over a city.

  Akiro nodded a little and looked slightly sheepish at the memory.

  “Now she runs the coffee cart out front of Old Swift Town.”

  Ah of course, that was where she was from in the town, I just hadn’t been able to place her.

  “She wanted to talk to me about a business venture,” he said.

  “Oh, that makes sense why you were there then,” I said, grinning at him and feeling a little relieved for some reason.

  He looked at me strangely. “You seem surprised that I would be there for any other reason.” He sat down his tea towel and looked at me with amusement. “I’ll have you know, young lady, that I am a regular visitor to Old Swift Town. I even have a season pass.”

  “Huh,” I said, leaning over the counter a little. “I didn’t know you were such a big fan of Old Swift Town. What is the attraction to you? Besides all the dust. And the smell of horse dung always vaguely lingering somewhere.”

  He pursed his lips and considered this question.

  “I suppose I feel some sort of connection to it. To the era. Maybe I was an outlaw in a previous life.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I’m staring at the reincarnation of Ned Kelly.”

  “So, your friend there,” he said, nodding toward the empty spot where Beth had been, referring to her like she was still there. “She’s still working in the town as well?”

  “Huh?” I laughed it off. “Oh no, you must have gotten your wires crossed. She doesn’t work at Old Swift Town. She just knew someone who did. She’s the client I was telling you about.”

  Akiro frowned and shook his head as he went back to drying the coffee cups with his towel. “No… I have seen her there.” He winked at me. “Remember, I am a regular. I know the employees.”

  I didn’t want to get into a fight with him about it, but I was pretty sure he was mistaken. Maybe she just looked like someone who worked at the park.

  And then I remembered what Indy had said to me.

  About the killer having been under my nose the entire time.

  I wasn’t sure that cats were supposed to ‘travel’ like this.

  Indy was waiting for me to open the door to the passenger seat. “Do I have to open it myself?” she asked wryly. I was just grateful that we lived on the top of a hill with the nearest neighbor a half a mile away so that no one could see or hear that I was talking with a magical cat.

  “How do I know that you won’t just jump out of the car and escape as soon as we get there?” I asked her.

  “Aww, sweet that you worry about losing me,” Indy said with a sly grin. Her ears were pricked up and her eyes were bright.

  “I’m just saying. Your cat instincts might come out.”

  “Well, you can trust me, Ruby. I thought after all this time, you would know that. And I’m not a regular cat. I’m a magical cat. We behave a little bit differently.”

  But I’d never heard of a cat following a human around like a dog. They just weren’t made like that. I wasn’t sure that the magical ones were any different.

  “And what if people see me talking to a cat!” I asked her, still not sure that she should come along for the ride, let alone the play I was about to spy on.

  “Then just don’t talk to me. Problem solved. Personally, I could do with a little peace and quiet.”

  She smiled and I opened the door and let her climb in. What was the worst that could happen?

  I started the engine and headed down the hill to the local production of Little Women — The Musical that was playing that night at the Swift Valley Theater. I’d googled Beth Sinclear and found out—surprise, surprise—that she was an actress. And she was acting that very night.

  Why hadn’t Beth told me the truth about how she had known Teresa? She certainly hadn’t told me what her plans were that night when she’d hurried out of the coffeehouse, saying she had late-night appointment to get to.

  I spoke to the cat. “Why would she hire me to solve Teresa’s death and then keep important things from me?”

  Indy raised an eyebrow. “Maybe she was trying to lure you into a trap.”

  She looked ridiculous perched on the seat like that, so I asked her to keep her head down in case any passing vehicles saw us.

  “Well, that is a little rude. You don’t want to be seen with me.”

  I was just hoping that the sun would be almost set by the time we got to the theater, which was located right in the center of town, the local pool on one side and the library on the other.

  I had something to ask her, though, now that we had some time to talk during the drive down the hill. I glanced at my hair in the rearview mirror again. “What is up with this weird hex
on me? Do you have any idea who might have been behind it?”

  Indy stared up at me. “Hexes are personal, Ruby. This is something you are going to have to find out on your own.”

  “Thanks for your help.”

  It was like she knew something I didn’t and was holding it over me. Then again, cats always had that look about them, so maybe it was nothing to take too seriously.

  I hesitated to open the door, still thinking she might flee, but like a good little kitty, Indy climbed out and followed me to the back door of the auditorium

  We were at the back of the theater behind the side exit where no one could see Indy down at my ankles, and I made sure not to draw too much attention by not looking down when I spoke to her.

  Beth was a talented actress, and she was a pretty good singer, even though she wasn’t the lead. The woman who was the lead—who played Jo—definitely had the clearer, more powerful voice of the four sisters. Beth was playing the part, ironically enough, of Beth, the second youngest sister and the one that suffers a dramatic death in the final third.

  Indy had a lot to say. “Do you see the way she is glaring at the woman who plays Jo? It’s like she would do anything to take her part. Even kill.”

  I knew what she was getting at. It was just that it didn’t add up as far as I could see.

  “What about the motive, though? It’s not like she got anything out of Teresa’s death. She didn’t take over Teresa’s role. Marissa did.”

  Indy just stared up at me. “Sometimes you’ve got to look at what is beyond the surface.”

  “Huh, what do you mean by that?” I was focused on the play and also focused on NOT looking at the talking cat at my feet. When she didn’t respond for a couple of minutes, I looked down and started to ask again. “What do…”

  But she was gone.

  I’d put milk out, and food, before I left for work the following morning.

  I just hoped she would find her way back to the farmhouse. I mean, she was supposed to have magical powers, right? It should be easy enough for her. If she didn’t want to be found, then she wouldn’t be found, and vice versa.