Witch Way Round (Witch of Mintwood Book 6)

by Addison Creek

  “I have a feeling Dylan Wolf kept Jasper away,” I said bitterly to Charlie. We were standing off to the side watching couples sweep across the center of the room.

  Greer had taken a break and gone in search of her brothers. We’d promised them a dance, and we hadn’t yet had a chance to deliver, while Deacon was waiting to take Greer out on the floor at last.

  “You think he’d do that just because of you?” Charlie was skeptical. “Even if Wolf, Sr., would, do you really think Jasper would let him get away with it?”

  “Yes! No!”

  I didn’t know what to believe. I only knew that Jasper had told me he was going to be there and he wasn’t. The more I thought about it, the more my insides tightened.

  “Here they are,” said Charlie happily.

  Greer’s twin brothers still looked dapper, and as if they’d had a great evening. Neither Derek or Devin knew the lengths we’d had to go to in order to pull it off, but as I looked across the room at Goldie’s happy face, I decided it had all been worth it.

  “A lot has happened this weekend,” Charlie commented.

  “And it’s not over yet,” I pointed out. My body was tired and my feet hurt. The night had been awesome but long, and I was ready to leave. Maybe after this dance I could slip away.

  Devin gave Deacon a friendly punch on the shoulder as a hello, while Derek extended his hand to me and said, almost formally, “Would you like to dance? I think this is the last one.” I took his hand with a smile, and as he led me out onto the dance floor he whispered, “See, I figure Greer can marry Deacon because his name also starts with D.”

  “That’s excellent logic,” I whispered back to him, smiling a bit.

  “Right? It must mean they’ll be happy together,” said Derek, grinning at his own joke.

  Without warning he spun me around and then pulled me into his arms. Surprised, I nearly stumbled, but his sure arms caught me.

  There were only a handful of hearty couples left on the dance floor at this point, but a lot of people were still watching and tapping their feet to the music.

  “I’m glad Greer lives with you. I’d be worried about her if she’d ditched her family and lived by herself, but I figure you’re family,” Derek said to me.

  “That’s so nice,” I said, and I meant it. Mrs. Dice was so disapproving of every choice Greer made that I was relieved to know her brothers didn’t see it that way.

  “I mean it,” he said.

  “She looks after me, too,” I said. “The farmhouse would be lonely without her.”

  Derek shivered. “Yeah, living out there in the woods must get spooky at night. Do you believe in ghosts?”

  I was spared having to answer that one by a sudden whisper of murmurs through the crowd. Many people had stopped to watch the last dance of the night, but now their attention had been pulled away by something else.

  I glanced over my shoulder to see where everyone was gazing, and there, standing in the middle of the ballroom all alone, was Jasper Wolf.

  He looked perfect. His mint green eyes were sparking and his dark hair was tousled.

  My breath left my lungs in a gasp.

  “Looks like I won’t be finishing this dance with you,” said Derek ruefully.

  Stricken, I looked at him, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

  But he smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it. I knew it wouldn’t last long. I’ve heard all about Jasper.”

  I wondered what Greer could possibly have been telling him, but now was not the time to ask.

  When his eyes found mine, Jasper strode forward and asked Derek politely, “Would you mind if I cut in?”

  Jasper had a way of saying things that made you instantly like him. Even Greer’s brothers appeared to appreciate his straightforward, open manner.

  Greer’s brother shook his head and stepped aside.

  I expected Jasper to take me in his arms and sweep me off of my feet, but he did no such thing. Instead he cleared his throat, looking suddenly nervous.

  Maybe he realized that every eye in the ballroom was on us; I was certainly aware of it. But it didn’t stop him.

  “Would you dance with me?” he asked.

  The music was still playing, the people were still staring, the ballroom still smelled like roses, but everything faded into oblivion except Jasper’s words.

  “I . . .” I started to stutter something stupid and then stopped myself. “Yes.”

  Jasper’s smile lit up the room, maybe even the whole Country Club, as he stepped forward and took me gently in his arms. His hands were warm and I looked down as our feet started to move in step. I wasn’t a very good dancer, but I really didn’t have to do much. Jasper took care of it for both of us.

  Greer was still dancing with Deacon, and Charlie was dancing with . . . to my shock, Charlie was dancing with a tall, dark-haired guy: Hansen Gregory! When he saw me looking he grinned at me over Charlie’s much shorter shoulder, then turned his attention back to his dancing partner.

  In the blur of faces that we passed as we moved I saw Andy and Rebecca, both tight-lipped. I bent my head into Jasper’s shoulder to hide my smile.

  Charlie looked happier than I had seen her in a long time. I hoped she stayed that way.

  “Are you having fun?” Jasper asked. His breath brushed my ear and I shivered.

  “Oh, lots, except for the murder,” I said.

  “I hear you saved the ball. My grandfather was told it was canceled, and the next thing he knew, it wasn’t,” said Jasper.

  “We couldn’t let Goldie’s big night be ruined,” I explained.

  “I agree. I admire the fighting spirit,” said Jasper.

  We danced for a few minutes in silence. then he said, “Are you still mad at me?”

  “For what?” I asked.

  “For my next restoration project,” he said.

  “I wasn’t mad,” I argued.

  “The death stare was perfectly normal?” He was laughing at me; I was close enough to his chest to feel the vibration.

  “Is your grandfather here?” I whispered to him.

  “He’s somewhere,” said Jasper. “Why?”

  “Wondered if he’d care that you were dancing with me,” I said, holding my breath.

  “He probably will, but I don’t care that he cares,” said Jasper, his voice taking on an edge.

  “You don’t?” I asked.

  “No. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve decided a couple of things. I’d love to tell you what they are if you happen to have a night where you aren’t acting as an amateur investigator or mad at me,” said Jasper. Amusement had crept back into his voice and I found myself smiling.

  “Okay, you can tell me,” I said, trying not to let my grin get too wide.

  “One other thing,” he said and slowed our pace. I felt my breath catch as he said, “Beautiful dress. Where did you get it?”

  My stomach twisted. I had wanted Jasper to see me in my dress, but I hadn’t thought about what would happen if he asked me about it.

  “It was delivered to my room, but I don’t know who sent it,” I said.

  “The dress is perfect on you,” he said. “Maybe it was sent by someone who really knows you.”

  The way he said it made me look at him more closely, and what I saw made me gasp. Greer, dancing nearby, looked over at me with a questioning expression.

  My heartbeat quickened. Could everyone dancing nearby tell how electrified I was? I didn’t know, but people were in fact starting to stare.

  “Was it you who sent it?” I asked, trying hard to stay calm.

  With so much attention focused our way, I didn’t want to embarrass either of us by having the meltdown I felt coming on.

  “Do you mind?” he asked anxiously, still dancing close to me.

  “Mind?”

  “It was a bit presumptuous on my part,” he suggested. “Deacon told me you hadn’t found a dress. Contrary to what some women believe, men do listen when they’re talking
about shopping. I guess Greer told him she was worried about it, and he mentioned it to me.”

  “Where did the dress come from?” My mind raced, trying to figure it out. Had Jasper gone dress shopping? That’d be a little weird, but if it produced dresses like this for me, hey, I could dig it.

  “I was in a store and saw it as I passed the rack it was hanging on. Something about it just reminded me of you. Maybe it was how it was just as shiny on the outside as it was inside,” he said softly.

  Not even the fact that I was a witch and he didn’t know it could ruin the rest of this dance for me.

  Jasper and I did in fact help close down the ball with our first dance.

  Unfortunately, he had to leave right after we finished. I didn’t even get a chance to ask him if I was supposed to return the dress or what. Most people were gone before the last dance ended, and I was grateful for that.

  Very late that night we stopped helping Goldie with the cleanup, but only because she finally conceded that the job could be finished in the morning.

  She herself was exhausted. She’d been fluttering and dancing around since the ball had turned into such a resounding success, during the course of which several people had stood up and given toasts to Mason.

  He would have loved the night and been so proud.

  He was missed.

  That sort of thing.

  A certain talented, good-looking musician waited to talk to Goldie after his set. A circle three-deep in admirers had surrounded him as soon as he finished the last song of the night, and they’d continued to come in waves for the rest of the evening. Simon Simone had looked very pleased and had greeted everyone warmly.

  While Goldie whirled and turned, making sure everything was perfect, she kept stealing glances Simon’s way to make sure he was still basking in the appreciative glow the guests were shining down on him.

  “We should go find Mason now,” said Charlie, covering a loud yawn with the hand that was holding her pen.

  During the speeches in his memory he’d been sitting in a corner blubbering as he listened to them. Now he was nowhere to be seen.

  “When did you start taking notes?” Greer looked bleary-eyed, as if she wanted to rub the tiredness from her face but didn’t want to smudge her makeup.

  “As soon as I could,” Charlie muttered. “There’s so much to write down.”

  “Just don’t spill any Country Club secrets,” Greer cautioned. “If you do, I’ll be in big trouble.”

  Charlie promised to be discreet. Keeping secrets was always more valuable to her than divulging them anyhow.

  “Do you think Mason is still in his office?” Greer asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “He should have gone with the body, even last night. If he’s still at the Club there must be some sort of strong feeling keeping him here.”

  “We have to tell him that Simon was arrested for his murder and then released.” Greer had been upset about that since we’d heard about it; even her mother had looked concerned, though with her mother it was hard to tell what she was really thinking.

  Mason wasn’t in his office, but I had a pretty good idea where to look, and I was right. We found him sitting by the Lily Pond with the light from the nearly full moon casting an eerie glow on his ghostly form. He didn’t look up as we approached.

  “What are you doing out here?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t get back to my office. Something about being a ghost. So I decided to come here instead,” he said, staring out over the water.

  “Your body isn’t here anymore. Usually ghosts stick around their bodies,” I explained gently.

  “I had thought that because I’d spent so much time here, maybe I could just stay,” Mason explained.

  “Every once in a while it does work like that,” I said. Silently I added that this clearly wasn’t one of those times.

  He looked over his shoulder at the Lily Pond. “I don’t want to leave. Everyone said such nice things in there. I was finally getting everything on track after everything that happened in the early years.”

  My friends and I exchanged looks. “What do you mean?”

  “You didn’t say there was some big event,” said Charlie.

  “It didn’t have anything to do with this.” Mason twisted his hands around each other and shifted on the large rock he sat on.

  The path from the moon trailed right down the center of the pond and led directly to Mason. The whole picture was very peaceful.

  “It wasn’t any particular event,” said Mason. “I just mean that when I arrived, the place was in disarray. A Country Club must make money, and this place wasn’t. There were several old employees hanging on, but they weren’t very good. It took several years, but I ended up firing all of them. That’s what I mean. Not a big deal.”

  “Do you know what happened to those employees?” Greer wanted to know.

  Mason looked up at her. “No, I didn’t keep track. I was too busy running the place.”

  I bit my lip. Being fired could trigger a lot of anger, and there sure was a chance that one of the employees had taken offense at what Mason had done and nursed a grudge all these years.

  “When was the last time you fired an employee?”

  “Ten years ago,” he said. “At least, that’s the last time one of the staff who’d been here when I got here was let go. His last name was McCormick. I don’t rightly remember his first name.” Mason frowned, but thinking hard about it didn’t seem to bring the name back any faster.

  “You don’t know what happened to this McCormick?” I asked.

  “No, I don’t,” said Mason, “but I think we hired his son. He works here now.”

  “You hired his son?” I repeated stupidly.

  Several ghosts of rabbits and mice were skittering across the lawn. There’d been no sign of Paws all evening, and I had a feeling he was doing his best with the Country Club ghosts.

  “Yeah, David hired him. I’m not so involved in all of that anymore,” he explained. “I wasn’t thrilled when I heard about it, but I had always felt guilty about the uncle, so I let it go. He had loved the place, he just wasn’t very good at what he did. I figured we might as well give the kid a chance.”

  “How do you know it was his dad?” I asked.

  “He told me. Sorry I didn’t remember this last night. Everything was quite befuddled, but my memory is getting clearer as time goes on.” Reading my expression he was quick to add, “But I still can’t remember who killed me or why I was at the pond.”

  We had saved the day with the ball, but we still didn’t know who had killed Mason. Now we had less than a day before we had to head home. Solving the murder was going to get a lot harder if we hadn’t done it by then.

  My head was spinning. Mason had just admitted to having a whole list of enemies: all the people he’d fired on his way to the top. I couldn’t help but think that one of them might have nursed a resentment against him that had been kept under wraps for a long time.

  Until Friday, when Mason had been murdered in cold blood.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  In general, heading for bed after a long day was wonderful. Tonight, bed was the best thing that had ever happened to me. Despite—or more likely because of—all the excitement of the weekend and the last minute success of the ball, I was exhausted.

  My head hit the pillow and I was asleep less than a breath later. Paws was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t unusual; he was a cat. The fact that he was also a ghost didn’t mean he was any more likely to be around at night than a living cat would be.

  Greer and Charlie were just as tired as I was, and we all went to sleep with no discussion, either about the evening or the murder. It was already early Sunday morning, and since we weren’t going to be able to sleep in we needed all the rest we could get.

  We couldn’t very well solve a murder if we were exhausted.

  “Wake up,” Charlie was saying as she pushed against my arm. “Are you going to sleep fo
rever?”

  “Go away,” I grumbled, pushing back. “Leave me alone.”

  “You have to wake up,” she said more urgently. Something in her voice made the groggy cloud that filled my brain start to evaporate.

  “What?” I mumbled into the pillow. “You better have a really good reason for getting me out of bed.”

  “Paws didn’t come home last night,” said Charlie.

  My eyes flew open.

  Greer was still fast asleep, and Charlie and I made the silent decision to let her sleep an extra hour. Nine o’clock was one thing for me, but something entirely different for Greer.

  “That’s not that unusual,” I said after pondering the cat’s absence for a minute.

  “He’s been here every other night. I just have a funny feeling something bad happened,” said Charlie.

  “What could really be that bad?” I wondered.

  Charlie rolled her eyes at me.

  “You’re right. We should do something,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. “But he probably just fell asleep somewhere around the resort. I’d guess near the cheese.”

  Despite my reassurances, the room felt strangely empty without Paws. I kept expecting to see his judgmental eyes blinking at me or his translucent body curled up on a pillow, but he simply wasn’t there.

  “We have to go looking for him,” said Charlie. “What were his plans last night?”

  “He was going to talk to some of the Country Club ghosts and see if he could learn anything new about the goings-on at the Club. He thought there might be something that could help us,” I said.

  “Where would they be right now?” Charlie asked.

  “Probably the basement,” I said.

  As I came fully awake, my heart started to pound. Paws could take care of himself, but he had been complaining about the ghosts since we arrived. What if there was more to his whining than I’d realized? What if the ghosts didn’t like Paws sniffing around asking questions? I had my friends to support me, but whom did Paws have?