Magical Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 1)

by Kennedy Layne

  Witchcraft.

  I was still repeating the word over and over in my head, thinking that any moment I would wake up in my one bedroom apartment, having had the most vivid dream.

  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

  Liam decided to light another fire, though. This time, he’d soaked the ground with gasoline before striking a match.

  “How could you not have told me that Jacob Blackleach was one of your grandmother’s clients?”

  Chapter Nine

  “Leo, how could you not remember that Jacob Blackleach was one of Nan’s clients?”

  You’re the one who had the paper bags right in front of you. The names were scrawled across the front of each order, so don’t blame me because you missed it. I might be suffering from short term memory loss, but you’re the one who needs glasses.

  I was at a loss. I no longer had Nan’s ledger to look through. Liam had confiscated the tiny treasure for the state police, leaving me with little to go on in solving Jacob Blackleach’s murder. The little bit of control I had over this situation had been taken out of my hands, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

  Well, that wasn’t entirely true.

  I could vent to the odd-looking furball lounging on the coffee table in front of me as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He even had the audacity to continuously flick his tail. No, it wouldn’t do me any good to yell at a cat who could appear and disappear at will. Instead, I turned my attention on Ted, who looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but here.

  “You know that all of this could have been avoided had the little Persian king himself told me this tiny bit of news. Did you know Jacob Blackleach was a client?”

  “Yes.”

  I closed my eyes and prayed for more patience, having already accepted that Ted’s short replies were going to be the death of me. Speaking of death…

  “Ted, was he more than a client? Why would Jacob pretend to be Larry Butterball?”

  Oh, that’s easy.

  Leo squinted his eyes as if he were debating to share this enlightenment, but I took a step forward to show him that I was done playing around. I wasn’t sure I could take any more surprises with all this witchcraft talk.

  Jacob wanted Rosemary’s spells. He needed them.

  “What did Mr. Leo say?”

  I hastily did a double take, believing I’d heard Ted wrong. I quickly realized that Ted couldn’t hear a word Leo said.

  It appeared only I had that pleasure.

  “Leo said that Jacob wanted Nan’s spells. Something about needing them,” I translated, grateful that I didn’t have to hide my conversations with a cat like I had to do earlier today in front of Liam and Larry. That could get downright exhausting. I’d never been good at keeping secrets, so my immediate future was looking pretty lonely. “Wait. Nan has a spell book, too? Not just for recipes?”

  Yes.

  “Jacob was your grandmother’s client, but he was also more than that.” Ted frowned at Leo, but it wasn’t because the cat hadn’t been right in his assumption of Jacob Blackleach. It had more to do with Leo only giving me the bare minimum of information. “Mr. Leo, tell the whole truth.”

  Very well.

  Leo flicked his tail a little harder on the wooden surface of the coffee table to show his displeasure. Why did he want to make things so difficult for me? I was beginning to get a complex over a cat that preferred his own death over my company.

  What had I done to deserve this kind of karma in my life?

  It’s relatively simple. You see, Jacob was a wizard, having come from a long lineage of magic from the Blackleach clan. His knowledge of certain powers was weak in comparison to your family’s mastery of the eight spheres of magic, and he wanted your grandmother’s spells for conjuration and invocation. Technically, he coveted a special incantation that would allow him to summon the spirits of his dead ancestors.

  “That doesn’t sound like a good idea,” I said, only to then repeat everything Leo had divulged so that Ted was kept dialed into the conversation. It was wearing on me, but I liked having Ted in my corner. “Did Nan say yes?”

  Of course not. Jacob then practically begged Rosemary to create a spell that would locate a long lost relative. You see, the power of three is real. Jacob was hoping to reunite with his older brother, who had been shunned from his family for falling in love with a member of the Carsington coven. Now that was a powerful family who somehow managed to stay together after the witch trials of 1651.

  “Leo, why didn’t you tell me all this earlier? This explains why Jacob pretended to be Larry Butterball. Jacob had to have believed that either my mother or I have access to that particular spell book he’d been seeking this entire time.” I couldn’t believe Leo had been holding onto this important information. Liam needed to know at least some of this, because it spoke to Jacob’s motivation. Ultimately, all of this could lead to an arrest. I couldn’t imagine living Nan’s secret life where I had to keep my entire existence hidden from the good residents of this town. Cora Barnes suddenly sprang to mind. Okay, so not all the residents in Paramour Bay were nice. “Ted, I need to drive back into town.”

  Do I have to hide your keys the way I did your phone?

  Leo stood on all four paws and stretched his back as if he was just starting out his day. He even yawned for effect, but his casual attitude didn’t match the threat in his tone. He was totally serious.

  You cannot tell Heidi that you are a witch, just as you cannot share with the sheriff that Jacob Blackleach was a wizard. Nor can you reveal that his family was involved with magic. Revealing that you are a witch will only lead to a recipe that will spell disaster. None of the magical families are able to reveal their true existence. Ordinary people can be dangerous, especially those envious of your differences. The covens have a standing agreement to keep each other’s secrets and to not reveal the existence of the true nature of magic to the fearful public.

  I’m pretty sure that Leo snickered at the pun he’d just formed, but I was over his sarcastic replies.

  I didn’t even bother to translate Leo’s sentiments to Ted, who wasn’t even paying attention to my one-sided conversation with Leo anymore. The gentle giant was looking off into space as if he was a lovestruck teenager longing for his smart phone. I began to wonder if he didn’t have a crush on Mindy Walsh, who he had visited at the boutique today. That would be rather odd, considering I thought he was a…

  I couldn’t even finish that thought, because I already had enough stress in my life over the supernatural elements circling over my head. What I needed to do right this minute was solve this murder so that I was no longer standing in Sheriff Liam’s path waiting for the inevitable feel of cold steel on my wrists.

  Who are you fooling? Leo asked, hopping off the coffee table only to take up residence on the windowsill. I saw the way you looked at that young sheriff today.

  “You saw no such thing.” I denied his assertion, and rather vehemently, too. I refused to get into an argument with a cat over a man I found somewhat attractive. There were some lines that I couldn’t bring myself to cross, and one of them was discussing my love life with an ordinary housecat with a superiority complex who was currently in the shape of a hairball that looked like it had been run over by a truck.

  Take that back.

  Leo hissed my way, but his snaggled tooth dimmed his intent.

  I’m not ordinary.

  Once again, I wasn’t going to argue with Nan’s cat. I needed a plan, because Leo was actually right, in a manner of speaking. I didn’t want anyone else realizing I was a witch, when I wasn’t sure that was what I was to begin with. Wouldn’t I feel different somehow? Wouldn’t my body sense that I harnessed some type of natural power? The capability should manifest itself somehow.

  Where were my powers?

  Capturing the individual responsible for Jacob Blackleach’s murder needed to be my first priority, so that I could then concentrate on learning everything I could abou
t my family’s history and the lineage of our coven.

  Of course, that meant talking with my mother and getting her to tell me the simple truth, but that couldn’t happen until this weekend at the earliest—meaning I had five days to figure out the identity of the killer and let the sheriff arrest him or her.

  You are not Daphne, Ted is not Fred, and I am certainly not Scooby Doo.

  Leo settled in on the windowpane and stared out into the darkness as if he were offended to be compared to a dog, but he’d been the one who had made the comparison. He could only be mad at himself for the inference.

  Let the bumbling sheriff do his own job, while you do yours—which is learning to harness your powers properly. You know, the ones you seem to think you don’t have. The boxes of notes your grandmother left for you are upstairs in the loft underneath your bed.

  “The sheriff would be more than capable of finding out who killed Jacob Blackleach if he knew the real truth,” I said in my defense of Liam. It wasn’t fair that he got a bad rap for not knowing the facts about what was really happening in his town. Besides, he hadn’t even been born during the first murder my Nan was involved in fifty-three years ago. “Leo, you told me that you saw the individual who murdered Jacob Blackleach. You need to remember who it was so that I can go to the sheriff with some kind of story. I’ll come up with some plausible excuse other than witchcraft as to why Jacob was here to be murdered in the first place.”

  I don’t remember.

  “But you saw it happen,” I argued, not willing to let this go. I focused on Ted, who had gone back to staring off into space. We were so close to figuring out who killed Jacob, and yet I was stuck with these two clowns. “Ted, did you hear anything while you were inside the boutique? Did Mindy mention the murder or who she thought could be responsible? Did she see any strangers walking around town?”

  “Miss Mindy would never talk out of turn. She is a lady.”

  “I didn’t say she…”

  I let my words trail off as a headache began to form behind my temples. Ted was taking things way too literally for me to deal with him right now. I purposefully moved to the couch and sat down on the overstuffed cushion, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath the way Heidi had taught me during the one yoga class we attended last year as a free introductory lesson. I continued to monitor my breathing and clear my mind as I brought my boots up underneath my skirt, making myself more comfortable on my perch.

  “Cora Barnes asked Miss Mindy to sell the boutique today.”

  I popped open my right eye, peering at Ted to see if he understood how revealing that small bit of truth had been. I wasn’t sure he was even capable of lying, but this bit of news meant Cora and Desmond were more than serious about expanding the malt shop.

  Ted’s sunken cheeks somehow became hollower as he tilted head to the side and stared back at me, almost as if he’d never seen someone in the meditation position. Maybe he hadn’t. Nan hadn’t been one to contemplate yoga when she could be getting her nails painted at the salon.

  “Cora asked Mindy this today?” I asked, just to confirm what I’d heard. I lowered my lashes and took another deep breath. It was in that exact moment that I figured out how I could take advantage of Ted and Leo’s knowledge. I quickly lowered my black boots from the couch and leaned forward before searching through coffee table drawers for a notepad and pen. “And was Mindy one of Nan’s clients?”

  “Oh, no,” Ted said emphatically, shaking his head continuously until Leo intervened with a meow. “Mr. Leo, I don’t know what you’re saying to Miss Raven, but Miss Mindy is a good woman of faith.”

  I really wanted to go down that interesting path, wondering if Ted truly believed that Nan wasn’t a good person because she’d used witchcraft in a wrong manner. But that little peccadillo wouldn’t solve this murder, so I would have to save that topic for another day.

  What I needed right now was a list of names and to find someone who could tell me if anyone they knew in Paramour Bay was capable of murder. Well, besides Liam. I almost stopped looking for that notepad when it dawned on me that maybe one of the Carsingtons had murdered Jacob because of some old family feud. I’m glad I didn’t.

  “Leo, what exactly is this?” I asked, spinning toward the window while holding up what I firmly believed to be the same ledger as the one Liam had taken into evidence for the state police. Oh, no, he didn’t. I continued to deny what was in my grasp, needing confirmation. “What did you do?”

  I did what had to be done. There is a pact to be upheld.

  Leo’s snaggled tooth was showing a little more than usual. Was he sneering at me?

  When you’re done playing amateur detective, let me know, and then we’ll begin your training. Otherwise, you can drag Ted’s carcass around town while you do the sheriff’s job for him.

  And just like that, Leo was gone.

  Vanished.

  I mean, it was like he never existed.

  “You shouldn’t yell at Mr. Leo in his fragile state.” Ted sighed as if he were talking with to a toddler. I was beginning to wonder how Nan had dealt with these two on a daily basis. “You’ll find that Miss Mindy’s name is not in that ledger.”

  I didn’t reply, but instead sat back down on the couch and opened the leather-bound book. The ledger not only contained a list of clients and what their reasons were for seeking out Nan’s help, but it also served as a protracted calendar of sorts. Beside each name were dates and times, seemingly a rather regular schedule at that.

  It was quite similar to the calendar of tea orders I’d found in one of the drawers at the shop.

  This type of organizational skills made it somewhat easier, yet difficult, to find what I was looking for in the midst of names. What I was searching for was motive, means, and opportunity. And I truly hoped none of those things included revealing my family’s secrets.

  And there it was staring right back at me as if the letters had been highlighted in yellow—evidence that Cora Barnes was supposed to have been in the shop at the time Jacob Blackleach was murdered.

  “Ted, I found it! I found it,” I exclaimed, scrambling to my feet before heading to the door. I snatched my purse off the side table, along with my keys, and opened the door. “I’m going to find Liam and tell him who the killer is, all without revealing my newfound heritage. Ted, I’m a genius!”

  Chapter Ten

  Okay, so I wasn’t exactly a genius.

  The night I went to find Liam to tell him about my brilliant deduction, he’d been at the local pub. In all honesty, I didn’t even know Paramour Bay had a pub of any sort. The building wasn’t even located on River Bay itself, but instead sat off of Water Way in a charming English-style dart bar. They had several local brews on tap and was now officially my favorite microbrewery.

  I’d run into Eileen as I was walking back to my car from the police station. She’d been leaving a small theater that played movies not exactly on their first run. You know the kind, the ones that had been released three months ago in places like New York City. I highly doubt that the place held fifty couples when it was full, but then again, I’d never been inside. That small treat would have to wait for a time when I wasn’t living my own classic horror movie.

  You know, you’ve been poring over those notes for days. We need to begin your training.

  “Leo, look at this as preparation for that training. Every bit of family insight will help me in that endeavor, which I’m still not sure what to expect from your so-called training. Besides, we still have no idea where Nan hid her spell book.”

  I know where it is.

  My head whipped up from the journal I was reading regarding my great-great-great grandmother’s life, though there was no mention of witchcraft. Had Leo finally pulled through on something of importance? The fact that his green eyes were narrowed told me otherwise.

  I had it there for a second. Oops, now it’s gone.

  It took all my might not to lay my forehead down on the counter with a feeling
of complete defeat. A lot had happened over the past three days, yet nothing of significance. Other than realizing Nan had left me a faulty set of instructions in Leo.

  Getting back to the night I’d thought of myself as a bona fide genius, it turns out that Cora Barnes had been hosting a lunch for the local ladies’ auxiliary at the public library in one of their back rooms. She’d decided to forgo picking up her order, seeing as I’d yet to open the store officially.

  At least, that was her excuse.

  I’m still not sure I believed her statement to the police.

  I couldn’t allow my disappointment to be noticeable, especially since Liam had been very appreciative that I’d been attempting to think outside the box when it came to Jacob’s murder. I ended up telling him a little white lie about there being a sticky note underneath the cash register about what time Cora had been supposed to pick up her order at the shop. He hadn’t been told yet by the state police detective that the ledger had gone missing, so I’d had to fudge a bit on how I’d been made aware of that information.

  I’d even gone so far as to suggest that maybe Cora had thought I’d already be open for business, not expecting to run into a conman who had been impersonating Larry Butterball. I even tossed out the theory that Jacob’s murder could have been in self-defense if she’d chanced upon him while he was robbing the shop. Looking back, I’d been a chatterbox and couldn’t stop the various scenarios about last Sunday from escaping my lips.

  It was clear to see that Liam wasn’t buying every little assumption I had told him, either, but I had seen a small glimmer of interest in his brown gaze. He was keener than Leo had given him credit for, and I had a hunch Liam observed a lot more than anyone initially realized.