“Wow, this was an emergency,” a familiar voice said from behind me, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Aunt Lucy!”
“I’ve been known to be a disaster in the kitchen, but this is impressive, even by my standards,” my aunt said, looking up and down at the disaster that had unfolded in front of me.
“I messed up a spell,” I said by way of explanation.
“I sure hope you did,” Aunt Lucy said with a laugh. I had to admit, her nonchalant reaction to seeing a kitchen covered in splattered cookie dough was setting me more at ease.
“Can you fix it?”
“Sure. What did you do?”
“I tried the doubling spell,” I replied. “But I messed something up, because it doubled, and then it kept doubling. It wouldn’t stop. So I used the spell to make it smaller, and that worked, but then it started growing again, even faster than last time. So as a last-ditch effort I used your pumpkin-exploding spell.”
Aunt Lucy grinned. “See? Aren’t you glad I taught you that one?”
“I guess I am, actually.”
“Well, this is an easy fix.” Aunt Lucy pulled out her wand, muttered a spell under her breath, and waved the wand around the room. All of the cookie dough began to magically disappear, and in about fifteen seconds the kitchen was sparkling new once more.
Those ads for cleaning products wished they worked that well. Mr. Clean had nothing on Aunt Lucy.
“You’re amazing, thank you,” I said.
“If you really want to thank me, get back in that kitchen and make some more cookies,” Aunt Lucy ordered. “This time, I’ll watch you cast the doubling spell since I want a whole batch to myself.”
“Fair enough,” I said with a laugh as I went to the now-empty bowl sitting on the mixer. The very least Aunt Lucy deserved after saving my butt from death by giant glob of cookie dough was a new batch all to herself.
“So what crazy did I interrupt in your life by asking you to come here?” I asked as I carefully measured out the flour and put it in the mixing bowl.
“Oh, nothing, really. It’s quite disappointing. Nothing good has happened in town recently. I mean, there was the time the sprinklers malfunctioned and went off in Ariadne’s store, and the bubble bath bomb collection in the window went off, and it looked like someone had just given the place a very pink deep clean, but apart from that there hasn’t been much. I’m really quite bored, so I was glad to get your text.”
I gave my Aunt a careful look. I might have only lived in Enchanted Enclave for about three months now, but I was experienced enough to know that if Aunt Lucy was bored, that was bad news for everyone else.
Aunt Lucy needed a hobby, and one that didn’t involve tormenting her old rival Ariadne Stewart.
Just as I opened my mouth to suggest something – maybe surfing? Aunt Lucy didn’t seem the crochet at home type – my cousins Kaillie and Leanne burst through the front door, having returned from their grocery trip.
“I thought you were making cookies,” Leanne said disappointedly from down the hall. “I don’t smell any baking.”
“There was a minor issue with the leavening agent in the first batch,” I said, earning a chuckle from Aunt Lucy. “Don’t worry, you’ll get cookies, but it’s just going to take an extra half hour.”
“And I get my batch first,” Aunt Lucy replied.
“Oh, hey Auntie,” Kaillie said, carrying about eight reusable shopping bags on her shoulder. Kaillie was one of those people who would rather stab herself in the face than make two trips to the car after getting groceries. I was pretty sure one day she was going to cut the circulation off to her arm so badly it would have to be amputated, but I couldn’t argue with her results. That girl could carry twice her body weight in groceries if she had to.
Dropping the bags onto the floor as elegantly as possible when they weighed at least fifty pounds, Kaillie stood up. “I can’t wait for the cookies. It’ll be nice to eat some baked goods someone else made for once.”
Pretty soon the kitchen was busy as my cousins put away the groceries and I dropped dollops of dough onto a baking sheet.
As I popped the first batch of cookies into the oven and started helping put cans in the pantry, chatting with my family, I realized that I was really, truly happy here in Enchanted Enclave. Things were nice. Things were quiet. And unlike Aunt Lucy, that was completely fine with me.
Little did I know just how much things were about to change.
Chapter 2
The next day we were back at work at Cackling Witch Coffee, the roaster slash coffee shop that my family owned and operated. Leanne and I worked the front counter, with each of us taking turns making coffee and taking orders. I’d only started making coffee about a month ago, but I had quickly taken to the machine. There was nothing quite like seeing thick crema from the portafilter dropping into a perfect round cup, the aroma of coffee wafting to my nostrils.
I was getting to know the regulars here in town, and the morning flew by quickly as customer after customer came through the door, looking for great coffee and equally delicious pastries baked by Kallie in the kitchen at the back.
The only thing anyone was talking about in town was the new hotel development that had just broken ground about a week ago.
“I can’t believe they’re going through with that,” Janice, the owner of the yoga studio and our first customer every day said, shaking her head when Leanne mentioned it. “It’s a travesty. A development like that is going to kill the small-town vibe of this place.”
“We’re not the sort of place where you want a mega-resort,” Leanne agreed.
“Why did the town council approve it, if everyone’s so opposed to it?” I asked, looking between the two of them. After all, all of the permits and town council meetings and everything had gone on long before I’d arrived in town; according to Kaillie the developer had been working on getting this hotel through for the past five years.
Janice rubbed her thumb against her other fingers. “Somebody got paid, is my guess. Nobody wanted this, but they pushed it through anyway.”
I shook my head. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It is, but money makes the world go ‘round. And of course, there are a few business owners in town who think the new mega-resort is going to be great for them. After all, two-hundred-and-something new hotel rooms means probably doubling the number of tourists we get here daily, plus they’ll stay the night instead of coming here as a day trip, so they’ll spend even more money,” Janice said.
“Of course, those people are forgetting that if we become just another cookie-cutter town overrun with tourists we’re going to lose all the charm that drew people here in the first place,” Leanne countered. “Ariadne is the head of the group of owners who wants the hotel to go up. It’s ridiculous. I’m all for bringing more business to the town, but not at the cost of our way of life.”
“I completely agree,” Janice said. “I make a decent amount of my income from tourists as well, running yoga sessions on the beaches in the summer, but I don’t live here for the money. If that was my goal, I’d go to a bigger city. I live here because of the people and because it’s still possible to live a quiet life and be one with nature. A mega-hotel goes against all of that. Anyway, I heard there’s going to be a protest this afternoon at the site. You might want to head down there if that interests you. It’s supposed to start at three.”
That was right when we closed. “Thanks, we’ll be there,” Leanne said. Janice lifted her cup to us in a toast and left.
“We can always come back and clean up after,” I said, and Leanne nodded.
“Exactly. It’s important that we protest this new development. If we double the number of people who come here on a daily basis, it’s going to significantly alter the makeup of the town as a whole. I don’t care how much money the people on the town council were paid; I don’t want a giant resort built on this island.”
I agreed. For the rest of the day, that was al
l almost anybody was talking about. If I had to guess, I’d have said about eighty, maybe eighty-five percent of our customers were vehemently opposed to the new development. The rest were non-committal enough that I assumed they were in favor of it but were simply too scared to admit to their point of view as they were a significant minority.
As soon as three o’clock rolled around and we shut the store for the day, Leanne and I grabbed Kaillie and the three of us headed to the development site for the protest.
“I’m glad this is happening,” Kaillie said. “Do you know who organized it?”
I shook my head, but Leanne nodded. “I mean, I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that it was Sean Ingraham.”
“Who’s Sean Ingraham?” I asked.
“He’s the guy who runs the local political Facebook group,” Kaillie explained. “If you read the local paper, you’ve probably seen his letters; he writes them almost weekly, complaining about how the municipality does things. Honestly, he can be a little bit annoying, but I know he has the best interests of the town at heart. Because of his platform, he’s best prepared to set something up like this on short notice. He can just post to his group and half the town will know about it within minutes.”
“If he’s so outspoken, why doesn’t he run for mayor or something?” I asked.
“Well, Sean’s a bit weird that way. He says his role isn’t to become one of the corrupt, it’s to spell it out when he sees it. He thinks he does more good in his current role. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s what he’s going with. I think he doesn’t want to be seen as being part of the system. He’s a bit weird like that,” Kaillie replied.
“He’s a bit weird in general,” Leanne muttered. “I’m not sure he ever would get elected. But he’s taking his influence and putting it to good use.”
I wasn’t entirely sure where we were going. I was just following my cousins as we walked off one of the main roads and down a hill towards the water. We had to be on the far side of the island; it took us at least twenty minutes to walk there, but when I expected to hear the ocean waves lapping against the shore, I instead began to hear the outraged voices of protestors.
“Wow,” I said aloud as we turned a corner and I suddenly saw what everyone was outraged about. There was a large billboard with a flashy hotel on the picture.
Enchanted Nights Hotel – Coming Soon the text underneath said in big white letters. Underneath: Two hundred and fifty suites in a boutique-style resort offering all amenities for a relaxing west coast retreat.
I wasn’t entirely sure two hundred and fifty rooms counted as a “boutique” hotel anymore, but what did I know about marketing?
I also wasn’t sure how long the billboard was going to stay standing: a few disgruntled young men seemed to be kicking at the frame, trying to knock it down. There were about three hundred others all gathered in the area, some holding up signs, most of them chanting. In front of them was the land the hotel was obviously going to be built on, and I had to admit, I felt a tinge of sadness at seeing the large, beautiful fir trees that were going to have to be destroyed to build the hotel. This was a beautiful, wild forest, and it seemed a shame to destroy it. As if right on cue, a Stellar’s Jay swooped down from the trees, letting out a loud caw. Was it loudly supporting the protestors? I knew that was ridiculous, but then, a few months ago I would have told anyone who believed in magic that they were ridiculous, too.
The demolition had obviously only just started. There was a bulldozer and a front-end loader on the site, their bright yellow exteriors sticking out among the dark greens and browns of the forest. Signs warned trespassers away, but that didn’t seem to be stopping any of the crowd.
A man jumped onto the top of the bulldozer, stamping his feet and holding a bullhorn. He was of medium height and build, with short-cropped brown hair, wearing a flannel shirt and jeans.
“That’s Sean Ingraham,” Kaillie whispered in my ear, and I nodded as the man put the bullhorn to his mouth and began to speak.
“Look at this crowd!” he started, and a cheer rose up from everyone. “Are you ready to show the leaders of Enchanted Enclave that we don’t want this hotel?”
This time, the roar from the crowd was almost deafening. The three of us chimed in as well, adding our voices to the swell. Sean waited for the noise to die down a little bit then spoke again. “The residents of this town have made their will clear: no to big hotels! No to developments that will ruin the town spirit! No to turning Enchanted Enclave into a big city! No to the Enchanted Nights Hotel!”
After every sentence the crowd chanted “No!” in almost deafening harmony. Leanne nudged me in the ribs as Sean continued his talk and motioned to the left. Standing near the trees were a couple of men I recognized. The first was Ronald Jones, the chief of police here in Enchanted Enclave. He was fat, arrogant, bad at his job, and always smelled suspiciously of alcohol. I frowned outwardly; I didn’t like Ron, not one bit, and I agreed with everyone in town who thought he should have been removed from his post a long time ago.
But next to him was another man I also recognized. Tall, with brown hair that always fell in front of his kind brown eyes, Ross Andrews was one good-looking detective. He stood casually next to the crowd, his thumbs tucked into the loop of his jeans, which was in stark contrast to Chief Jones, who looked like he was ready to break out his Taser and start jolting anyone who got too close.
“I wonder why Ross is here,” I whispered to Leanne.
“Oooh, guess who’s asking about her lover?” Leanne replied, and I rolled my eyes at her.
“I am not. I’m interested because he’s a detective, not a regular cop. And Chief Jones being here is pretty big news, too.”
“Yeah, ok, that is a good point,” Leanne admitted, her teasing about my new relationship forgotten for a moment. She looked over at the two policemen and frowned. “I wonder what they’re investigating.”
Before I got a chance to answer, there was another roar from the crowd. They were one hundred percent on Sean’s side.
Suddenly, a voice shouted from afar. “What’s going on here? What’s all this?”
A man, short and stout, with a bald head and a red face stomped towards Sean and began yelling. “What are you doing here? Get off my property! All of you, get out of here!”
“Who’s that?” I whispered to Leanne.
“Barry Blackburn,” Leanne replied. “He’s the developer building the hotel. I guess someone told him about the protest.”
Barry tried climbing onto the bulldozer, and it was a slightly comical sight. He struggled, his short legs not quite long enough to allow him to get on elegantly. He was trying to get on top of the treads, and had managed to get one leg on, but his other still dangled below. His pants were dangerously tight, and suddenly there was a loud ripping sound and his underwear – pink with black hearts - were put on full display.
I gasped as the crowd suddenly roared with laughter. Barry managed to roll himself onto the bulldozer’s track, his face now the same shade as an overripe tomato.
“Why don’t we all tell Barry here what we think of his bribing officials to get a permit for this place?” Sean shouted into the megaphone, and the air filled with the sound of booing. Barry stood up, turned, and flipped off the crowd, earning himself another round of boos.
“I guess he’s not here to try and change anyone’s mind,” I said to my cousins, my eyebrows rising. Barry motioned for the crowd to shush down and tried to get Sean to give him his megaphone, but Sean refused. Finally, Barry gave up and just spoke as loudly as he could.
“You’re all a bunch of ingrates,” he called out. “I’m here, a small businessman, trying to make an honest living by bringing more tourism to this town, and all you hippies can do is whine about it ruining the fabric of this town. Well you know what else ruins towns? Not having an economy at all. Money is more important than having a few more trees around. Who’s going to miss these ones anyway? Nobody, that’s who. So l
et me build my hotel, and we can all get rich.”
The booing was so loud this time it was almost deafening. I couldn’t believe that was the strategy Barry Blackburn was going with to try to stop the protest. Calling everyone hippies and telling them no one was going to miss the trees he was going to cut down was very much missing the point. I disliked the man already.
Chapter 3
“Alright, alright,” Ross suddenly said, his voice booming across the crowd with an authority completely unlike that of Barry Blackburn’s. “That’s enough, everyone. You’ve all made your point. Now please, I need to have a conversation with Barry here. Everyone go home.”
“Lock them all up for trespassing,” Barry spat at Ross, who shook his head.
“I’m not going to do that as long as they leave in a few minutes. Yes, that includes you, Sean. You’re currently standing on a bulldozer that I’m pretty sure doesn’t belong to you, so I recommend you get out of here.”
Sean looked like he wanted to argue, but Ross’ commanding presence won out, and he dropped from the bulldozer.
“This isn’t over! We’re going to win this fight. There’s going to be a hotel built here over my dead body!” he shouted into the bullhorn one last time. There were still cheers from the crowd, but they were a little bit more muted with everyone leaving now that the police had broken things up.
Ross was looking up at Barry, who seemed to be refusing to come down.
“I wonder what all that’s about?” I asked, motioning towards them. “Why is Ross talking to Barry?”
“Excuse me, ladies,” a voice from behind me said, and I turned to find myself looking at Chief Ron. “I believe you were told to disperse.”
“And we’re leaving,” Kaillie said firmly, grabbing Leanne and me by the wrist and dragging us away.
“Oh come on, we wanted to know what was going on between Ross and Barry,” Leanne complained.
“I know, that’s why we left,” Kaillie replied. “It’s none of your business, anyway, so why do you care?”
A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3 Page 32
