Clarissa grabbed her phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found Liana’s number.
Then she hesitated.
She really needed to talk, but was she being selfish? Liana had her own problems to contend with, what with the coffee shop being shut down. The last thing Clarissa wanted to do was add to her best friend’s burdens.
“I know,” Clarissa whispered to herself. “I’ll call Matilda.”
Before she could do so, her phone lit up and began to vibrate. It was her aunt calling.
“I was just about to call you!” Clarissa exclaimed in surprise.
“I know,” Matilda replied nonchalantly. “I had a feeling you were going to.”
Clarissa raised an eyebrow.
She was still getting used to the fact that she and her quirky aunt possessed some rather unusual powers. Among other things, Matilda was mildly psychic. Her abilities weren’t strong enough to allow her to pick winning lottery numbers or anything, but she occasionally got A Feeling about certain things.
It was very strange. But in this case, it was also very good.
“Can you come over?” Clarissa asked hopefully. “I need you.”
“On my way,” Matilda replied without hesitation.
Chapter 13
“So let me get this straight,” Matilda said as she perched on the couch. “You pretended to be engaged, even though you aren’t actually engaged. Word spread and now the whole town thinks you and Parker are getting married.”
“Yes!” Clarissa exclaimed tearfully.
She was too upset to sit. Instead, she was standing at the window staring out into the woods. She kept hoping to see the headlights of Parker’s car coming around the corner…but he was nowhere to be found.
“And Parker thinks what, exactly?” Matilda asked.
“I don’t know!” Clarissa moaned, throwing her hands up in despair. “I tried to explain things to him, but then work called him. He had to leave before we could really talk about it. And when he left, he kissed me on the cheek.”
“Well that’s a good sign,” Matilda concluded.
“It isn’t!” Clarissa cried. “He usually kisses me on the lips! This time he kissed me on the cheek. That seems so…so…so impersonal! What if he thinks I’m completely off my rocker and he’s had enough?”
“Clarissa, I’m sure Parker is used to your shenanigans by now. If he’s stayed with you this long then what makes you think he would bail now?” For once, Matilda was the voice of reason. For once, her logic was actually logical! It was a miracle!
Unfortunately, something was weighing heavily on Clarissa.
“What about the warning I got?” she whispered, barely daring to speak of it.
“Hmm?” Matilda murmured. It seemed she was only half-listening. As Clarissa waited for her aunt to say something brilliant and comforting, Matilda pulled out a makeup compact and began to inspect her teeth.
“The spirit at the séance gave me warning,” Clarissa reminded her aunt impatiently. “It said ‘Beware, for the lovers’ first fight will end in disaster on date night,’ and then it said that anger results in miserable endings.”
Matilda shrugged. “Spirits are no different than people, really. Some are trustworthy and others talk nonsense. The spirit may have been making that up, for all we know. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
“What if it was true though?”
Matilda set her compact down. “Marriage isn’t so great if you ask me,” she said dismissively. “Look at my situation. I was foolish…a naïve, love-struck fool. I thought I was head-over-heels in love when I got married. Six months later, I was divorced.”
Clarissa frowned. That wasn’t the pick-me-up she had been hoping for.
She was also desperately curious to find out what had happened in Matilda’s love life to make her so bitter. Matilda’s marriage had taken place a long time ago, back when she was young. Clarissa only knew snippets about what had happened. She didn’t dare ask for details. That felt rude and overly intrusive.
“Love…who needs it? I certainly don’t!” Matilda declared with a scoff. Then she picked her compact back up and continued to examine her appearance. “Do you think I need to whiten my teeth?” she asked.
“Your teeth look fine.”
“Yes, but they could be whiter,” Matilda insisted. “I’m worried they look yellow in photos.”
“Why does it matter?” Clarissa asked.
“I don’t want yellow teeth in my dating profile pictures!” Matilda explained as if that should have been obvious. “If potential matches see yellow teeth, they’ll just move on to the next profile! It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, Clarissa. I need to look my best!”
Dejected, Clarissa sighed.
Her aunt talked a good game, but clearly she didn’t believe what she was saying. If she was really so content on her own, then why was she obsessing over a dating web site? She wanted love every bit as badly as Clarissa did…even if she wouldn’t admit it.
“I’m going to call Parker,” Clarissa decided.
She pulled out her phone and then paused.
She turned around to look at her aunt, who was still primping, preening and inspecting.
“Does calling Parker make me seem too desperate?” she asked anxiously.
“How long have you two been dating? It’s about a year, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Clarissa replied, blinking. “Why?”
“You’re acting like I do when I have first date jitters!” Matilda exclaimed. “Relax! If you want to call him, then call him. If you don’t, then don’t. It isn’t rocket science, dear.” She stared into her compact for a moment before announcing, “I think I should get a new hairstyle.”
Clarissa didn’t reply. She was too busy dialing Parker’s number.
Her aunt was right. She was acting ridiculously! Technically, she and Parker hadn’t even had a fight. Maybe he had been a little horrified, but that would blow over…wouldn’t it? It had to. It was simply a misunderstanding. Nobody had shouted or said hurtful things. Clarissa realized in that moment that she was definitely overreacting.
The phone finished dialing and began to ring.
Clarissa tapped her foot impatiently, eager for her boyfriend to answer her call. She couldn’t wait to hear his voice! She knew that the simple act of talking to him would almost certainly calm her irrational fears.
“He isn’t picking up!” Clarissa exclaimed in horror.
Matilda shrugged.
Then her entire coffee table began to rattle as though an invisible force was trying to lift it.
Dropping her phone, Clarissa felt her heart lurch in horror.
Matilda, on the other hand, barely looked away from her own reflection. “Stop that,” she said as though scolding a toddler. She seemed completely unfazed by what was happening.
The table rattled more, as though someone – or something – was trying to make a point.
A devious smirk came over Matilda’s face. “I mean, if you’re going to do things like that you should at least work on your upper body strength. Look at you! You can’t even lift the coffee table. You’re just embarrassing yourself, you know.”
Almost immediately, the table stopped rattling.
Matilda giggled. “Sometimes you just have to put them in their place,” she whispered to Clarissa with a devilish gleam in her eye. “Certain spirits just hate having their precious, delicate little egos bruised!”
Clarissa wasn’t laughing.
“You brought a spirit with you and didn’t tell me?” she demanded, feeling betrayed.
“No,” Matilda replied. “I didn’t bring it. It was already here.”
Shocked, Clarissa began to sputter. She thought back to the photo frame that had mysteriously moved from the fireplace mantle to her coffee table. There had also been a lot of unexplained noises lately – sure, she lived in an old house, but even so…
“Is my house haunted?” Clarissa whispered, her heart poundi
ng wildly.
Matilda averted her eyes. “I may have neglected to end our séance properly,” she admitted somewhat sheepishly. “When you’re done communicating with spirits you’re supposed to say goodbye. That signals to them that they need to leave. I er…I think I forgot to do that.”
“So the spirit you contacted has just been hanging around my house ever since the séance?!” Clarissa demanded. That was even creepier than having Victor show up unannounced!
“Spirit…or spirits,” Matilda mumbled.
“There are multiple ghosts in my house?” Clarissa gasped. “Get them out!”
“They’ll go when they’re ready,” Matilda assured her. “As long as they’re not lighting things on fire, they’re probably relatively harmless.” Her choice of words wasn’t exactly reassuring. That was a whole lot of speculation and a whole lot of uncertainty!
“Please, can you just ask them to leave?” Clarissa asked.
She was half-demanding and half-begging.
“Don’t make them angry and everything will be fine,” Matilda insisted.
“Don’t make them angry?” Clarissa repeated incredulously. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “You insulted the spirit who tried to lift the coffee table about his poor upper body strength!”
“Oops,” Matilda replied.
At that moment, the cat walked into the living room.
“Are your eyes still raining?” it asked Clarissa.
“No.”
“Oh. That’s too bad, because it would come in handy right about now.” The cat paused to lick its paws and then leisurely wash its face. Then, almost as an afterthought, it paused and nonchalantly said, “Oh by the way, the kitchen is on fire.”
Clarissa and Matilda both raced into the kitchen.
Sure enough, a small grease fire had broken out atop the stove.
The women were able to put the flames out rather easily, but that wasn’t the point.
Shaken to her core, Clarissa looked at her aunt. “This shouldn’t have happened. I wasn’t cooking anything,” she said, a feeling of dread coming over her. “The stove wasn’t turned on. Someone – or something – must have turned it on. It was a spirit, wasn’t it?”
Matilda pursed her lips and rolled up her sleeves. “Alright,” she said. “I’ll get rid of the spirits.”
“Thank you!” Clarissa said gratefully, even though her aunt was the whole reason the spirits had decided to haunt the house in the first place.
“No problem,” Matilda replied. Then she walked to the front door.
“Wait, where are you going?” Clarissa demanded in alarm. “You can’t leave!”
“I need to go consult my book of spells,” Matilda admitted.
“Are you telling me you don’t know how to get rid of the spirits?!”
“Well I can’t be expected to know everything,” Matilda retorted, somewhat defensively. “Just wait here and I’ll be back when I have a solution. Oh, and you might want to keep a fire extinguisher handy. It seems one of your uninvited houseguests might be a bit of a pyromaniac!”
“You can’t just leave me here alone with a house full of ghosts!” Clarissa wailed.
“You won’t be alone,” Matilda said as she climbed onto her broomstick. “You have the cat.”
Just then, the cat came charging into the room.
“I’ve had it with these ghosts!” it announced angrily, its little pink nostrils flaring. “Ghosts are almost as bad as squirrels! Never a moment’s peace! I tried to chase them away. Then I tried to ignore them. I’m done! I’m staying with Matilda until the ghosts are exterminated!”
The cat hopped on the back of Matilda’s broomstick. Then, as Clarissa watched helplessly from down below, her aunt and her cat soared up into the night sky. Unfortunately, that meant she was left all alone with a house full of ghosts!
“I’m getting out of here!” Clarissa decided, her heart palpitating. She ran inside just long enough to grab her keys. Then she called out to whomever or whatever might be listening, “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t burn my house down! Thanks!”
With that, she turned and raced to her car.
Chapter 14
Clarissa drove aimlessly. She had no real destination in mind; she simply wanted to stay far, far away from her house until her aunt de-ghosted it. After driving all through the town several times over, she found herself out in the country.
In fact, she found herself right outside Kara Benton’s acreage.
With a shrug, Clarissa turned down the long, winding gravel lane. Maybe her subconscious was trying to tell her something, she reasoned. And besides, she really needed to either rule Kara out as the killer or gather some good, solid evidence against her.
As she rounded the bend, Clarissa shut her headlights off. She drove slowly and carefully so as to not make too much noise. Thankfully, Kara didn’t seem to have a dog. Clarissa had been half expecting a little guard critter to come charging out at her barking its head off!
Clarissa parked the car a safe distance from the house.
She shut the engine off so it wouldn’t attract attention. Then she stared into the dark windows of the house as she considered the million dollar question that presently had her stumped.
“Could Kara have killed her ex-husband?” Clarissa wondered aloud.
The motive was certainly there. It was obvious that Kara hadn’t been fond of her ex. He had apparently cheated on her, so it was no wonder she couldn’t stand him. And it was completely plausible that, upon seeing him enter the coffee shop with his new girlfriend, Kara had snapped.
Clarissa’s eyelids were growing heavy.
Stifling a yawn, she decided to lean her head against the window and rest her eyes for a minute. Then she’d drive back to…well, not to her ghost-ridden house, but to town. All Clarissa needed was a moment or two of shut eye and then she’d be good to go…
*****
A sharp rap on the window awoke Clarissa with a start.
She lurched forward with a gasp only to be pulled back by her seatbelt. It wasn’t her finest moment. She squinted against the morning sun. What she saw caused her to mutter something unrepeatable under her breath.
Tara Benton was standing outside her car, glaring in at her. So much for a subtle, undetected stakeout! Clarissa gulped hard and wondered if she should just rev the engine and speed away.
Before Clarissa could make a decision, Tara motioned for her to roll her window down. Reluctantly, Clarissa complied. She didn’t know how this conversation was going to go, but based on the angry expression on Tara’s face Clarissa suspected it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“Are you casing the joint?” Tara demanded once the window was down. She had her hands on her hips and she looked very, very angry. “I’ll call the cops and have you locked up so fast your head will spin!”
“Huh?” Clarissa asked, still half-asleep.
“You’re parked outside my house,” Tara said. “Are you planning to rob me?”
“No, of course I’m not.”
“Then what are you doing here?” Tara leaned closer then, and squinted. She reached into her shirt pocket and pulled out her eyeglasses. After putting them on, her eyes narrowed. “You’re the reporter!” she exclaimed as recognition set in.
“Yes,” Clarissa admitted. She was silently cursing herself for not speeding away the second Tara had woken her up. Apparently Tara hadn’t recognized her until she’d put her glasses on. Whoops! Hindsight was 20/20.
“So you’re out here snooping around, is that it?” Tara crossed her arms and stared Clarissa down, impatiently awaiting an explanation. For a woman who dressed like a librarian and had a secret love of sappy romance novels, Tara was surprisingly intimidating!
Clarissa took a deep, steadying breath. Then she decided she wasn’t about to let an angry potential murderer push her around. She sat up straight in her seat, ignored the big red print she was sure the window had left on her cheek and tried to r
ecollect what was left of her dignity.
“I’m sorry for alarming you,” Clarissa began, even though Tara seemed more enraged than afraid. “I didn’t mean to startle you and I’m certainly not here to rob you. I’m here because I have a problem, Tara.”
That clearly wasn’t the response the short-tempered woman had been expecting. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Finally she said, “I don’t understand. Why are you here? What can I possibly help you with?”
It was time to be brutally, devastatingly honest. Clarissa worked up her courage. Then she said, “You know I’m investigating your ex-husband’s murder. Somebody slipped a peanut into his muffin. You’re my number one suspect.”
Tara glared at Clarissa. Her nostrils flared as she indignantly screeched, “How dare you turn up on my property making wild accusations and –”
“Believe me, I don’t want to be here either,” Clarissa interrupted, standing her ground. “But as long as you’re a suspect, I have to keep tabs on you. I’m a reporter; it’s what I do. The thing is…you say you had nothing to do with Donnie’s murder.”
“Of course I didn’t!” Tara snapped. Hearing her ex’s name seemed to further infuriate her.
“It looks suspicious,” Clarissa pointed out. “Donnie’s ex-wife who hated him just happened to be at the coffee shop when he died? I mean, it’s obvious you couldn’t stand the guy. You had the motive and the means to kill Donnie. It doesn’t look good for you, Tara. Surely you can understand why you’re on my suspect list.”
“I can’t help how it looks,” Tara fumed. “I didn’t do it! So what if I’m not grieving my cheating ex-husband’s death? That doesn’t mean I’m guilty of killing him! This is absurd. I just want to get on with my life!”
“So help me,” Clarissa implored. “Help me rule you out as a suspect. Then I can spend my time and energy following other leads. If I can rule you out, I’ll leave you alone. That’s what we both want, isn’t it?” She stared into Tara’s eyes, searching for the truth. “Who killed Donnie, Tara? Who wanted him dead more than you did?”
A Whisper of Magic (A Sugarcomb Lake Cozy Mystery Book 5) Page 9
