by Rose Pressey
“I guess you’re wondering why I so urgently want to speak to you?” I asked.
“I kind of have a feeling…,” she said. “What do you want to ask me?”
“It’s about the guy,” I said. “Mark. The one I was with here before.”
“Yeah, what about him?” She looked around as if she was uncomfortable when I mentioned his name.
“Did he happen to purchase a cell phone for you?” I asked.
“That’s an odd question. What makes you ask?” She glanced over her shoulder as if she wanted to run.
“Well, it’s complicated, but I suppose you should know. I found a cell phone with your name in his apartment. Did you lose a phone there? You’ve lost a couple cell phones now.”
I lied about finding her name on the phone.
She scoffed and looked around nervously. “No. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Something tells me you’re not being truthful with me.”
She laughed nervously again.
“You know, if I get the police involved it could be a lot worse for you,” I said.
Regina stared at me for a moment, and then looked over at her date. Derek and the guy were still glaring at each other. I had to hurry and get the information from her before a fight started again. Derek was fit, but I wasn’t sure he could compete with that guy’s giant muscles.
She ran her hand through her hair. “Okay, I’ll tell you what I know.”
“I’m listening.”
“Mark asked me to call this guy Paul. Mark said he wanted to prank him.”
“So you went along with it?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I figured it was just a joke and there was no harm in it.”
“What happened next? How many times did you contact him?”
“We talked a few times over the phone. I think Mark was doing the texting. Well, at least I know that I wasn’t the one doing all the texting to Paul. Do you think the police will arrest me? I mean, there was no harm done. Do you think Paul killed himself because of that?” she asked.
“We think someone lured him there to kill him. I think you were the one who lured him there.”
“I didn’t do anything on purpose. Mark is a scary guy. He would have hurt me if I didn’t do what he said.”
“What did you say to Paul the last time you spoke?”
“Well, we agreed to meet at the house,” she said.
“And then what happened?” I asked.
“Mark took him in the car and they went to the hotel room.”
“Do you know why Mark wanted to do this?” I asked.
She shook her head. “He never told me. I assumed they were friends and they were just joking with each other.”
“Some friend,” I said. “So what happened when you got to the hotel?”
“I told you the truth before. I left after that, so I don’t know what happened.”
“So Mark used you as bait,” I said.
“I hadn’t thought about it that way.”
Just then movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. When I looked over, Mark was running toward Derek. When he got close, he lunged and jumped on Derek’s back. He immediately started punching him. I ran over and screamed for him to get off Derek. Since Derek had been attacked without knowing what was coming his way, he didn’t have time to defend himself. The muscular guy was just standing there.
“Aren’t you going to help?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Not my fight.”
I had to do something. I ran toward the van. I reached inside and grabbed my gun. I ran back over to the scene. Derek was still struggling with Mark. No one in the club was even coming out to help. I stood near the men as they continued to fight.
That was when I pulled out the gun and aimed it. “Get off him now or I will put a bullet in your ass.”
The muscular guy and Regina put their hands up and backed up, as if they had done something wrong. Mark and Derek stopped fighting. Mark looked at me.
“Get up now and put your hands up. Don’t make any sudden moves or I will be forced to shoot.”
Mark eased up from the ground with his hands in the air.
“Good, now back away and stand by that wall,” I said with the gun still pointed at him.
Derek came over beside me.
“Call the police,” I said. “I’m not sure how long I can keep him like this.”
Derek made the call while I kept my eyes focused and the gun aimed. My arms were starting to shake. The sirens grew closer until they were finally on us. Thank goodness the police finally arrived. The lights from the cars cast a blue glow over the area. I put my gun away as soon as I saw them.
Derek pointed to the guy. “There he is.”
Regina and her date were still staring in shock. Finally people from the club came out to see what was going on.
The officer came up to us. “You want to tell us what happened here?”
This was going to be a long story. And not easy to explain either.
“That guy is responsible for the murder of Paul Constantine,” I said.
The officer stared at me. I knew he had no idea what I was referring to.
“What she’s trying to say is we are private investigators and we just figured out this guy is responsible for a murder,” Derek said.
The officer still stared at us.
“Plus, Mark attacked him.” I pointed at Derek.
“Would you like to press charges?” the officer asked.
“Well, yeah,” I said.
I mean, if they weren’t going to charge him with murder at this very second, then I at least wanted him in jail. The police cuffed Mark and took him over to the police car. He glared at us as he went by, but he didn’t say a word. It looked as if that spell I’d cast had worn off when all of this went down. Of course people were still staring at us.
“Do you think they will figure out what we’re talking about?” Derek asked.
“I guess when they have all the facts they will,” I said.
We made statements to the police and gave them our information. Yes, this was a dangerous job, but at least I had Derek as my partner.
Chapter 31
Turns out, Chuck had hired us to find out who murdered his brother because he thought his brother’s killer was really after him. Apparently he owed money to bad people and they had been looking for him. That was the two men who’d been chasing me. They’d also broken into my office and house. Mark had been the one to fire shots at us though. They’d been there the day Paul died at the hotel, but it was too late, Mark had already pushed Paul out the window. Mark just wanted Paul dead because he’d been dating Brianna. Mark had sent Paul text messages from the stolen cell phone pretending to be Jazmine. Mina was the name on the phone—that was the nickname Paul had given Jazmine. Paul hadn’t known that he’d been mostly talking to Mark. Chuck should have been truthful in the beginning and maybe we could have solved the case a lot sooner. That was all behind us now though.
The next day, I still had the box that I’d received from the magic emporium, but the problem was I hadn’t ordered anything. I wasn’t sure who was sending me something, so I pulled out the package from the hiding spot. Now that I was alone I opened up the box. Inside was fabric. The stockings were purple and black striped with a little witch skirt and matching little bustier-type thing. It looked like an elaborate Halloween costume. It also had a large witch’s hat.
I looked at the receipt. I knew I hadn’t ordered this, but had they somehow sent it by mistake? When I saw the name Melanie on the invoice I knew this was some strange gift from the coven.
I picked up the phone and gave her a call.
“Why did you send me a costume?” I asked when she answered.
“I figured it would be neat if we all had costumes to wear at our coven meetings.”
“This is probably something we should discuss at one of the meetings, don’t you think?” I said, examining the little skirt
and wondering if it would fit.
“Well, in hindsight, yes,” she said. “But the things are just so cute I couldn’t resist. And how much fun will it be for us to do our spells wearing those cute witchy outfits?”
“Yeah, a lot of fun,” I said.
“Now go try it on and take a little selfie and text it to me, okay?”
I couldn’t believe that she was talking about me sending her text messages. I examined the skirt. “I’m not even sure that it will fit me.”
“Of course it will. I took your measurements.”
“You what?”
“When you fell asleep at the last meeting I just got the tape measure and measured you while you were there.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“Now go take a picture,” she said.
I hung up the phone. I had to admit the thing was cute, so I decided to go ahead and make her happy and put the thing on, even the hat. I’d just snapped a quick photo when a knock came at my door. Of all the rotten timing. Now I had to change out of this costume before I could answer the door.
“Who is it?” I called out.
“Derek.”
“Just a minute,” I said.
No way could he see me like this.
All of a sudden the door opened and Derek was looking right at me as I wore my huge witch hat, my little skirt, and the green and black stockings.
“I said just a minute. That didn’t mean come in.”
“I thought you said come in. I couldn’t hear you very well. What are you wearing now?”
This was so embarrassing.
I tossed my hands up. “You know what? I’m tired of trying to hide things from you. Yes, I’m a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. And yes, I’m also a witch.”
His mouth dropped open. He just stared at me.
“Well, say something,” I said.
“You mean a witch like with a cauldron and spells? I assumed you were interested since I’d seen you at the occult shop, but this is a whole different level.”
“Yes, all of that,” I said. “It’s really just being in tune to nature, that’s all.”
“Why are you wearing that costume?” he asked.
“This is just a silly idea Melanie had for our coven.”
His eyes widened. “You have a coven?”
“Yes, we have a coven, and we have meetings. We talk about our spells and try to do good with all of this. Don’t act like you didn’t know. I know you were suspicious.”
He moved closer to me. “I have to admit you look damn sexy in that outfit.”
I couldn’t hold back the blush in my cheeks. I knew my face was completely red. Derek touched my arms and then the next thing I knew he leaned down and kissed me on the lips… again. I guess he liked the witch costume after all.
A knock at the door interrupted our kiss. Derek groaned a little, but then finally I broke free to answer. I still couldn’t believe that we were kissing. And how did I feel about that?
“Who is it?” I asked before answering the door. I always did that now.
“Your neighbors,” Bill called out.
I recognized his voice. This must be the part where they asked me to leave. I tried to mentally prepare myself, but I didn’t think it had worked.
When I opened the door there were about six of my neighbors standing there. Were they going to forcibly drag me out? A black cat with big bright green eyes strolled by at that moment. Everyone turned around and watched the cat. I’d never seen it around. That was kind of odd since I was standing there in the witch costume.
“Hi, everyone,” I said with nervousness in my voice.
“We just wanted to talk to you,” Bill said.
“Oh, I figured as much. Is this the part where you all ask me to sell my house and get out of the neighborhood?”
“No, dear. Whatever would make you think we wanted you to do that? We want you to stay. We were just coming to tell you that we enjoyed having you here and we feel much safer.”
“You feel safer? I thought you said that you didn’t feel safe with me here with all of the trouble that I brought?”
“You have the police around here so much that we do feel safer.”
I supposed that was one way to look at it.
“Are you happy? Are you going to stay?” Bill asked.
I smiled. “I’ll stay.”
At least for now. Someday I would probably need to move on.
They looked at Derek. “Well, I suppose we should leave you alone now.”
Before they had even moved an inch the coven witches had arrived. They were wearing their costumes too. Theirs had the same color scheme as mine, although in different styles for each of us. We looked like some sort of weird version of the paranormal Spice Girls. Everyone was staring and shocked, including me. I couldn’t believe they wore their costumes over here.
“Oh, good. You still have yours on,” Melanie said when she walked through the door.
“What are you all doing?” I asked.
The neighbors walked away and I closed the door.
“Just making sure you had your costume on. We want to take pictures.”
Photographic evidence? I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea.
“Do you want me to take the pictures?” Derek asked.
“Awesome,” Melanie said.
“I’d be happy to take photos.” Derek took the camera.
I’d get him for this later.
The ladies pulled me over so that we could have a group photo.
“Say ‘Witches’ Coven’,” Derek said.
As long as the witches were happy I supposed I could handle the outfit.
Melanie took the camera from Derek. “We’d better leave. I can see you two are busy.”
I felt heat settle in my cheeks. The witches hurried for the door.
“We’ll call you soon,” Melanie said and then closed the door behind them.
“I guess the secret is out now. Do you still want to be my partner?”
“Now more than ever.” Derek took my hand in his. “Cece, the reason I came here was because I need you to go somewhere with me.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “Where?”
“I’ll explain when we get there.”
“I need to change.” I turned toward the bedroom.
“There’s no time.” He pulled me toward the door.
Why wouldn’t he tell me where we were going?
“I’m starting to become a little concerned,” I said.
Derek started the car. “Starting to? That doesn’t sound like you.”
“Well, I was being generous.”
A short time later we were driving by the blinking lights of the casinos. Finally, Derek pulled into a parking lot.
I peered over at the sign. “Um, why are we here?”
The neon flashing lights spelled out the words ‘Wedding Chapel.’ Now I was more than a little concerned.
Derek turned to me. “Now just hear me out.”
“I don’t like the sound of this.”
He opened the car door. “Come inside with me and I’ll explain.”
“Why should I do that?”
“Just trust me, Cece.”
I opened the door and reluctantly followed him to the entrance.
Derek opened the door for me. “After you.”
He was being overly sweet. I knew that meant he was up to something. We stepped inside and an Elvis immediately came out to greet us.
“Hello,” he said with a fake accent. “If you’d like to look over the wedding packages and then let me know which one you’d like.”
I turned to Derek. “You want to tell me what’s going on?” I knew my voice sounded a bit panicked. “Who’s getting married?”
“Now just hear me out, Cece.”
I hurried toward the door and Derek grabbed my arm. “Cece, please. Just listen to what I have to say. We can get the wedding annulled.”
“What are you talking about? Derek North, have you l
ost your mind? Oh, who am I kidding? You lost your mind a long time ago.”
“No, I am completely serious.”
“We don’t have to get anything annulled because we won’t be getting married.”
Okay, I would admit it, I had feelings for Derek North, and he was totally hot, but I was not going to get married right now.
The next thing I knew, I found myself at the altar standing in front of the Elvis, who was getting ready to marry us. My parents weren’t going to be happy if they ever found out about this.
“We are gathered today to wed…”
The end
About the Author
Rose Pressey is a USA Today bestselling author. She enjoys writing quirky and fun novels with a paranormal twist. The paranormal has always captured her interest. The thought of finding answers to the unexplained fascinates her.
When she’s not writing about werewolves, vampires and every other supernatural creature, she loves eating cupcakes with sprinkles, reading, spending time with family, and listening to oldies from the fifties.
Rose suffers from Psoriatic Arthritis and has knee replacements. She might just set the world record for joint replacements. She’s soon having her hips replaced, elbows, and at least one shoulder.
Rose lives in the beautiful commonwealth of Kentucky with her husband, son, and two sassy Chihuahuas.
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