A Cauldron of Hot Coffee: Enchanted Enclave Mysteries Books 1-3

by Samantha Silver

  “Same time tomorrow?” the receptionist asked, and I nodded.

  “Yes, please. That sounds good!”

  With that settled, I took Rudy back home and promptly fell asleep on the couch. I really needed this nap.

  Chapter 19

  I woke up to the sound of something sizzling in the frying pan and was pleased to find Kaillie was busy making falafel for dinner.

  “Yum,” I said as I opened the fridge and took out some cucumber, tomatoes, and spring onions to top them with and started chopping.

  “Did you have a nice nap?” Kaillie asked, and I nodded.

  “Definitely. I didn’t sleep well last night at all.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing you did since we’ve decided we’re going to go spy on Tom Jeffers tonight,” Kaillie said. “Are you in?”

  “Of course. But what do you think we might find out?”

  “Well, we mainly want to search his house while he’s away, but we also want to know where he’s going. So we’re going to split up. I’m going to follow him since I can fly a broom and I can see where he’s going. If he’s really just cheating on his wife, then so be it. But if he’s going around trying to find blood or something, then that would be proof enough for me. You and Leanne will go into the house and try to find evidence there.”

  “What, you think he might have a mini fridge full of stolen blood transfusion packets?” I asked, and Kaillie shrugged.

  “It’s possible. We’re not sure what we might find. But he’s our best suspect right now.”

  “Good,” I said. “Hopefully we’ll find some sort of proof that he’s the killer. But first, we eat. I’m starving. Where’s Leanne?”

  “She went to yoga. She figured you probably wouldn’t want to come.”

  “She was right,” I said, laughing. A nap had definitely been a much better idea, especially since it didn’t seem like I was going to be getting a full night’s sleep tonight, either.

  Cleo came back right as we were about to eat and immediately went to check on Rudy. I opened the box for her, and the cat visibly relaxed when she saw the little squirrel happily sleeping in his tea towel.

  “The vet says he should be fine,” I explained. “I’m going to take him back there tomorrow afternoon, and his splint will be replaced with a better one made to his measurements, and after a few weeks he should be healed and ready to go.”

  “Good,” Cleo said. “I’m glad to hear it. I went and saw his mother today. She’s very worried about him.”

  “Well, why don’t you tell her to come by here?” I offered.

  “I don’t believe this house falls in her territory,” Cleo replied.

  “Oh.” I hadn’t considered the fact that squirrels were territorial. “Well, in that case, you can tell her that the vet said it’s going to take a few weeks for Rudy’s leg to heal up and she gave me some good meal replacement so he’ll be nice and healthy when he comes back to her.”

  “Good,” Cleo said, and I could have sworn she nodded. Could cats nod? What about familiars?

  “Anyway, we’re going out tonight,” I said. “We’ll be back by morning, though. I can let you out then, and you can find Rudy’s mom and pass on the message. I’m assuming the rest of your outdoor adventures are going well?”

  “Oh, well, the work of a queen is never done,” Cleo said with a dramatic sigh. “The work is never appreciated, but it’s my duty.”

  I hid a smile. “Is there anyone who appreciates it less than others?”

  “The dogs. Definitely the dogs. They’re all so annoying. They’re constantly vying for my throne, attempting violent coups. But of course, they never come close. They’re either leashed or my superior physical fitness defeats them and I’m able to get away.”

  “Alright, well, why don’t you try staying away from them a little bit more?”

  I was glad to hear that at least none of the wild animals seemed to be too annoyed with Cleo. I supposed she had rescued a squirrel already.

  After dinner, I went right back to sleep thinking that I was going to need the rest. My alarm was set for midnight with the three of us planning on leaving a half hour later than that.

  “Alright,” Kaillie said, pulling out her wand and taking the broom. “I’m going to go. I’ll stop by the Jeffers house first and cast the spell to make Jordan Jeffers sleep through the night.”

  We had discussed whether or not I could cast the spell, but eventually we decided it was safest that Kaillie do it. And by “we” I mean that I had begged her to do it since I didn’t trust myself to cast a spell on another human being, especially not one who had no idea about magical powers.

  However, I was going to be in charge of any other magic Leanne and I had to do, which I hoped was going to involve unlocking the front door, and have that be it.

  “I’ll meet you back here,” Kaillie said, stepping outside. “Call me if you get arrested, but try your best not to be.”

  “Will do,” I said, watching as she hopped onto the broom. She floated with her feet dangling about a foot off the ground, and I shook my head, still insanely impressed. I had only discovered that I was a witch when I’d accidentally gone on a flying broomstick ride across the mall in San Francisco where I worked, and I’d been very wary of them ever since. I didn’t think I’d ever be the kind of witch who would be comfortable in the air despite the fact that the coven of Saturn was an air coven and our witches were supposed to naturally be good flyers.

  Kaillie gave us a quick wave, wished us good luck, then pulled out her wand and muttered an invisibility spell. She disappeared from view, and a second later I heard a whoosh of air as her broom zoomed off into the night.

  “Alright,” Leanne said. “Ready?”

  I nodded and the two of us walked out, locking the door behind us. We were dressed in black and had decided to walk just to make the chances of us being noticed a bit lower. After all, everyone in town knew everyone else, and if someone spotted the car, it wouldn’t be hard to trace it back to us.

  Sticking to the edge of the road, so we could jump into the woods if we spotted any headlights, we walked for about ten minutes before reaching the Jeffers property. They lived in a house that looked like it belonged in suburbia. Two stories, double-car garage, wood siding, perfectly manicured lawn. I hadn’t seen a property like this since moving to Enchanted Enclave.

  “Who built this?” I asked.

  “It was a custom job,” Leanne whispered in reply. “It doesn’t exactly fit in with the rest of the houses here, does it?”

  “No, definitely not,” I replied. The two of us snuck towards the house as quietly as we could. Hopefully Kaillie had come by and cast a spell to make Jordan Jeffers sleep until dawn, as promised.

  We crept up to the front door, and I pulled out my wand, making sure there was no one around even though it was one in the morning and we were at least a hundred yards away from the road. But hey, good habits are good habits, and I figured as a witch it was better to be safe than sorry.

  “Saturn, god of freedom, unlock this door so that we are welcome.”

  I heard a small click inside the door and turned the handle. The door swung inward, and I found myself face to face with a full-grown tiger.

  It was such an unexpected sight that I blinked a couple of times, expecting it to go away, and actually thought I was going crazy.

  “Um, Eliza, do you see that?” Leanne asked next to me.

  “The giant tiger?”

  “Yup.”

  “So neither one of us is going insane?”

  “Or both of us. Frankly, I’m kind of hoping it’s both of us.”

  The tiger was staring us down, walking slowly down the hallway toward the door where Leanne and I were standing.

  The smart thing to do would have been to run back out the other side, screaming. Unfortunately, I was so scared that I was rooted to the spot.

  The tiger suddenly roared, the sound so loud I covered my ears and cowered, and it jumped towards us.
I instinctively grabbed Leanne, closing my eyes and waiting for the inevitable crush of the tiger’s jaws against me.

  But nothing happened.

  “Are we dead?” Leanne whispered a moment later.

  “I don’t think so,” I replied. Slowly, I opened my eyes, and the tiger had disappeared, replaced with Aunt Lucy’s disapproving face.

  “Aunt Lucy!”

  “What on earth are the two of you doing in here?” she asked.

  “We could ask you the same question,” Leanne replied. “Did you get rid of the tiger?”

  “Of course I did. Why didn’t you tell me you were breaking in here?”

  Things suddenly started to make sense. “You conjured up the tiger, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” Aunt Lucy replied. “Obviously. I was warned of an intruder coming.”

  “Warned by who?” I asked.

  “By my sentry outside,” Aunt Lucy replied like it was the most normal and natural thing in the world.

  “Your sentry?” Leanne asked.

  “Yes. Obviously you don’t go around breaking into places when the husband has gone out without posting someone out the front to make sure you’re not caught when he comes back.”

  Leanne and I shared a look. Neither one of us had thought of that. Whoops. I supposed Kaillie could have texted us from her broom if she had noticed him.

  “Wait,” I said. “What would you have done if the intruder had been someone else?”

  “You’ve seen Tiger King,” Aunt Lucy replied simply.

  “You were not going to let the tiger eat them.”

  “Seeing as they found no evidence that the tiger ate Carole Baskin’s husband, they obviously do a good job of cleaning up the evidence,” Aunt Lucy replied, and I groaned. There was no way Aunt Lucy would have actually gotten a tiger to eat someone in this house, right?

  “Why are you here, anyway?” Leanne asked.

  “Hey, I was here first. You answer me.”

  “Obviously we’re looking for proof that Tom is a vampire who killed Barry,” Leanne answered, putting her hands on her hips.

  “I guess that does make sense.”

  “Have you found anything that might help us?” I asked, and Aunt Lucy shook her head.

  “No. I just got here myself. He has an office upstairs.”

  “Ok, lead the way. Also, Kaillie cast a spell that would keep Jordan Jeffers asleep until dawn. What did you do?”

  “The same spell,” Aunt Lucy said. “Whoops. On the bright side, she’s going to be very well-rested when she wakes up.”

  On the way up the stairs and down the hallway I looked at the floors. They were hardwood, and while they were in good condition, they didn’t look especially new. We passed a bathroom, and I looked inside, but again, while it was well-maintained, there were some obvious signs that there had been no renovations done in here recently.

  I tried not to get too discouraged. After all, it was possible that Tom bought the stuff he bought for someone else, too.

  “Do you know if Tom has any relationship with Don, the hardware store owner?” I asked Aunt Lucy as I caught back up to her and Leanne as they entered a spare bedroom being used as an office.

  “Hm,” Aunt Lucy said. “I don’t think so. I mean, I’m sure they know each other. Tom’s a politician, and Don is a pretty prominent member of the community. But I don’t know that they’re good friends or that they’ve ever worked together.”

  I frowned. That was disappointing; if the two of them had been close it would have been an excellent reason for Don to lie to us about recognizing who bought the items from his store.

  The office was pretty small, and Leanne sat down at the computer – she was way better with them than any of us – while Aunt Lucy started combing through the drawers.

  I went to the other side and opened the second cabinet and started rifling through those papers.

  “Is being a councilor Jeffers’s full-time job?” I asked, and Aunt Lucy shook her head.

  “No, he also owns the newspaper here in town.”

  “That seems like a bit of a conflict of interest.”

  “You would think so, wouldn’t you? When he ran, he promised he would be completely hands-off and wouldn’t direct his staff to run anything except completely non-partisan articles, and I have to admit, they did follow the directive. They ran stories on everybody who was in the race – ordering them alphabetically by last name – and they were fairly even.”

  “I guess that explains all of these clippings,” I said, pulling out a folder full of printouts of information from various websites, most of them relating to the island. There were clippings of articles from the Seattle Times, printouts of various court cases that had been handed down, and hand-written notes that looked to be written my Tom himself.

  I started looking through them. Unsurprisingly, most of the stuff in this folder seemed to relate to Enchanted Enclave. There was an article in the Seattle Times about a disagreement related to how close commercial fishing vessels were allowed to get to the island – the judge ruled in favor of the island in the end. There were documents from the court case related to that, documents about a divorce between the mayor and his wife, some notes that looked to be information from informants, along with scribbles about what journalists he passed the information along to, and more.

  Unfortunately, none of the notes said, “I’m actually a vampire, but I’m going to keep that to myself.”

  There were also no cool old coin collections or pictures of Tom from a hundred years ago that might have further indicated he was a vampire. I supposed it would have been too much to hope for a similar situation to the photo of the man from the 1910s who looked exactly like Nicholas Cage today. If anything like that existed, I imagined Tom would have gotten rid of that sort of evidence a long time ago.

  “Anything on your end?” I asked Leanne.

  “It looks like his wife’s instincts were right. He is cheating on her,” Leanne replied. “He has an email account that he tried to keep secret, and there are emails between him and… ohhhh, I know her.”

  “Who is it?” Aunt Lucy asked, immediately standing up and peering over Leanne’s shoulder. If there was gossip to be had, Aunt Lucy wanted to know about it.

  “Iris Ulman,” Leanne replied. “You know, the woman who runs the nursery?”

  “No!” Aunt Lucy replied. “I don’t believe it. I always thought Iris was the biggest prude and figured her husband’s heart attack was caused by pent-up frustration. I don’t think the woman has shown so much as an ankle in public in the last twenty years.”

  I giggled at the thought.

  “And yet if you read the emails between them, they’re definitely more than friends,” Leanne said.

  “I want to see,” Aunt Lucy said, but Leanne covered the screen.

  “No, you can’t. They’re private, and I don’t trust you with that information.”

  “I’ll sic the tiger on you,” Aunt Lucy warned.

  “You will not. Now let me keep looking for evidence of a murder in peace; that’s much more important than your need to get more gossip fodder. And do not spread this information around town. The last thing we need is to get caught having been here.”

  “You’re no fun. Iris Ulman. Who would have known she’s out there whispering sweet nothings to more than just rose bushes?”

  Suddenly, Aunt Lucy’s phone binged.

  “Well ladies, it’s been fun, but it looks like Tom is on his way home. We’ve just got a few minutes to get out of here. His car has just pulled into the driveway.

  “Wait, your sentry is in the driveway?” I asked. “That doesn’t seem super useful.”

  “You don’t have a sentry at all, so I’m not sure you’re in a position to cast stones,” Aunt Lucy replied.

  “Who is your lookout, anyway?” Leanne asked.

  “Carmen,” Lucy replied.

  “Really? Carmen’s so blind they have to special-order her glasses in, and she’s not legal
ly allowed to drive at night,” Leanne replied.

  “Yes, well, unlike you I’m not the sort of person who discriminates against the differently-abled.”

  “Did you ever consider that maybe you should have gotten one of your friends who can actually see to be your lookout though? We don’t even know that it’s Tom coming home.”

  At that exact moment there came a noise from downstairs, and a second later a voice I recognized called up.

  “Jordan? It’s me. I totally caught that son-of-a-beep that you’re married to. He’s cheating on you for sure.”

  “Ok, perhaps Carmen wasn’t the best lookout after all,” Aunt Lucy admitted.

  Chapter 20

  “Oh, no,” I said. “What do we do?”

  “Hide,” Leanne said, rushing to the door and closing it. If we were lucky, Michelle wasn’t going to come into the office at all. She and Jordan were best friends, so obviously Michelle would know where the bedrooms in this house were.

  Aunt Lucy quickly shut the lid on the laptop, and the three of us rushed to the closet just in case, closing the door behind us.

  “You have to reverse the spell on Jordan,” I whispered to Aunt Lucy. “Otherwise, when Michelle can’t wake her up, she’s going to think there’s something wrong.”

  Aunt Lucy nodded, pulled out her wand, and whispered something under her breath. Hopefully that had done it.

  “Jordan! Jordan, wake up,” Michelle’s voice called out. She was just outside the office now, the tap-tap-tap of her shoes along the hardwood floor announcing her every move. I held my breath, but sure enough, she moved right past the office and towards the bedroom at the far end of the house where Jordan had to be sleeping.

  Aunt Lucy muttered another spell, the same spell that Kaillie had cast at the coffee shop the other day, letting us overhear what was going on.

  “Michelle?” Jordan’s groggy voice muttered a moment later. “Michelle, what’s going on?”

  “You have to wake up, Jordan. I did what I said I would. I followed Tom. And he is cheating on you.”

  “What?” Jordan had obviously woken up a lot more at those words.