At first the man sort of looked at me and shrugged, setting my blood to boil. Then his eyes slid to Jasper and his face changed entirely.
“I’m so sorry,” said the waiter, who had finally come to his senses and righted the bowl to make sure it stopped slopping ice cream all over me. “I’ll get a cloth,” he said, dashing away and by now looking very concerned.
While I waited for him I used my napkin and the one Jasper handed me, but even he was now distracted.
“Jasper, good to see you,” said the man in the suit.
“You as well, Mr. Farthing,” said Jasper, rising to shake hands. He smiled at the woman, who was still sitting, and said, “Mrs. Farthing.”
“How’s your grandfather?” Mr. Farthing asked, and alarm bells started going off in my head.
“He’s doing well,” Jasper conceded.
“Not out with him tonight?” the man asked.
“This is Lemmi,” said Jasper, still placid but starting to be wary.
For a split second I considered shaking the man’s hand, just so there was a high risk of getting ice cream on his fancy suit, but I came to my senses before I did anything I’d regret. Instead I waved, if awkwardly. The man’s face burrowed a little and he looked displeased.
Given that he hadn’t even apologized, I did feel that I should be the one who was angry, not him
“Nice to meet you,” said Mr. Farthing in a voice that said it wasn’t. “This is my wife Hilda.”
Jasper must have read the expression on my face, because now I knew that he knew I was considering doing something foolish. He quickly intervened to defuse the situation, saying, “Lemmi, do you need any more help?”
“No, in fact I think I’ll pop over to the restroom,” I told them all, and got up to leave. “Nice to meet you too,” I said, casting a last glance toward the Farthings.
The waiter had just returned with more rags. He asked me if I was all right before apologizing again, but I assured him that I didn’t think what had happened was his fault at all, and in a voice loud enough for Mr. Farthing to hear.
Then I took the rags and stayed in the bathroom much longer than was necessary.
If Mr. Farthing knew Mr. Wolf, there was a good chance that word of my presence at the restaurant with Jasper would get back to the senior Wolf.
And what would happen then?
Damn my need for ice cream.
No, never mind. The ice cream is always the solution and never the problem.
When I emerged, Jasper excused himself from talking to the Farthings and came over to meet me.
“The manager asked to speak with me,” he said.
And indeed, I could see the manager hovering near the front entrance. As we walked toward him, I saw a flash of green out the big front window.
I told myself I had just imagined it, but no, there it was again, almost immediately.
My heart started to race.
“You talk to the manager. I’m going to wait outside,” I said, not having to feign the embarrassment I was implying about my pants. Jasper nodded, and I went out the door and stood under the awning, brooding on my situation.
The date had been going so well, and now it had gone so horribly wrong. The rain had made a disaster of my outfit planning, and then there was the ice cream debacle and the Farthings’ disdain. What, I wondered, was next?
None of it was Jasper’s fault; in fact, he had done everything right. It was more that the world had conspired against us, giving us yet another in a lengthening line of tests. I rather thought that cars in his lake and dead bodies in his silo should have been enough, but apparently not.
Then I saw another flash of green, and another, and I knew what they were.
After the rain, the dark witches had come.
From the depths of the black forest beyond the cozy light of the Bucket I saw shapes moving.
Even though I was alone, I wasn’t as afraid as I had thought I’d be, or as I knew I should be.
Ellie and Betty were coming out of nowhere, if nowhere could be described as the woods of Maine. Dark witches they were, dark witches coming to accost one lone witch, and that witch was me.
Had they followed us to Pennwood? Had I missed it since I’d been so wrapped up in Jasper? I hadn’t thought I was all that wrapped up in him, but of course I wouldn’t.
As they came nearer I could see that they were dressed in black from head to toe, which I thought looked a little dramatic. Their wands were also made of some black wood, a finishing touch that almost had me rolling my eyes.
Jasper was still inside, but at this point I wasn’t sure if he was talking to Farthing or the manager.
I had come out into the cool evening to get some fresh air and to cool off in other ways as well, but now it was finally dawning on me that leaving the restaurant alone might have been a mistake.
Even as I stood, unsure what to do next, Ellie and Betty kept approaching, walking close together and illuminated from the back by the dim light of a dark ghost. For a second I wondered if I was mistaken and they were simply people coming to The Cozy Bucket to eat. Or maybe they were meeting Mr. Farthing; he was unpleasant enough to fit right in.
But they kept coming right for me, and I couldn’t pretend any longer that I wasn’t in trouble.
My breath caught and rattled into my chest as I watched Ellie and Betty get nearer. Soon they were close enough so that I could see the dark ghost behind them, who turned out to be – who else? – Wendell. The ghost looked terribly pleased with himself.
The fact that Jasper was still speaking with his granddad’s business associate bought me a bit of time, and I decided to go on the offensive.
“Jealous that I just got to eat dinner in a fancy restaurant?” I asked Wendell as they came within hailing distance.
He glared at me. “I’ve heard mixed reviews about the place.”
“Well, too bad, because it was the most delicious food of my life,” I replied.
“Your judgment is clouded by love,” he countered.
Okay, that might be true.
“Best food I’ve ever had,” I said again. “I’ll thank you not to ruin my evening.”
“How can we ruin your evening when your meal was so good?” Wendell demanded. He was huffing and puffing and he kept cracking his knuckles, making me flinch in spite of myself.
“Stop it,” Ellie hissed. “She’s trying to get your goat and you’re letting her.”
“Did you bring your wand?” Betty asked with a kind of sneer.
My wand was tucked under the back of my shirt, but I wasn’t going to pull it out like a dummy. I was on a date with a probable witch hunter, no way was I going to let him see me with a wand.
“She’s not as dumb as I thought she was,” said Ellie, looking pleased.
“How dare you send ghosts into my farmhouse,” I fumed at her. In fact, I had a lot to fume at her about.
Her smile only broadened. “I can do as I please. You can’t stop me. Especially since your aunt left.”
I felt colder all of a sudden. I had hoped that she didn’t know Harriet was gone, but of course she did.
“Afraid without your magical protector?” Ellie persisted.
“Not of you,” I said. Other things, like I really didn’t like spiders, sure.
“Wendell in your kitchen was only the beginning. From now on there’s going to be real trouble,” said Ellie.
“You mean instead of empty threats?” I asked.
How could my grandmother have been best friends with this woman? She was a power-hungry menace.
“The threats aren’t empty!”
Suddenly Ellie’s eyes started to glow a startling shade of bright green. The magic spread over her irises to include all the visible parts of her eyes, and her wand shot into the air, spewing sparks. Even Betty shrank away from her in fear.
“Cool,” was all I heard Wendell say.
Overhead, lightning flashed out and a thunderclap followed. The rain came down ha
rder.
I itched to grab my wand, but I didn’t want to show fear.
Also, Jasper.
Ellie took three steps toward me and I lived through the longest moments of my life.
“Mintwood will be mine. You are not a true witch, and you do not deserve your own territory. Neither did Evenlyn.”
Without warning she raised her wand, sending forth a huge whooshing jet of sparks that made her earlier efforts seem puny. I flinched, and she cackled. Betty looked on, smug as ever.
“Hey, what’s the meaning of this?” Jasper’s voice was cold and angry. I had never heard him use that tone before.
In the amount of time it took me to turn and look at him, then look back, the dark witches had faded into the night.
Jasper took the steps two at a time, carrying a large bag in one hand. Before I could ask him what it was, he asked, “What was that?” Then he stood staring at the spot where Ellie had just been threatening me.
“Nothing,” I said, barely able to breathe.
“It looked like they were threatening you,” he said. “Which isn’t nothing,” he added in case I didn’t know.
“They left when you came,” I said, carefully avoiding a direct response to his statement.
“Look at me.”
Gently, Jasper turned me to face him.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. My attack of nerves wasn’t from fear but from anger. If they had tried to hurt Jasper . . .
I searched his face, his kind eyes.
He searched mine.
I had no idea what he would find there, but I could have looked into his eyes endlessly.
“Were they really strangers?” he asked.
Moment of truth.
I couldn’t lie.
“Not exactly,” I whispered, unable to look away.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.
I shook my head.
To my utter shock, he accepted that.
But even after I had assured Jasper that I was okay, he wouldn’t stop fussing.
“Our meal was on the house,” said Jasper. Then he thought for a moment, frowned, and added, “Which means I took you on a very cheap first date, and all you had to do was sacrifice your jeans.”
Then he gave a small smile and said, “That sounded wrong.”
As we walked to his truck I had a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. I say brilliant, because usually thoughts this good didn’t come to me, but tonight was different.
I came to an abrupt stop and Jasper stumbled to a halt next to me.
“Is everything okay? Did they come back?” he asked, looking around.
I felt bad for scaring him, and I rested my hand on his arm. That also took him by surprise and I saw his eyelids flutter.
I removed my hand as if I’d touched a fire on a cold Maine winter night.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, having literally no idea what I was apologizing for.
“You sound like you just had a realization,” said Jasper.
“Um, yes, I actually did,” I said.
All of a sudden I was practically itching to get to the Caedmon Chronicle archives. Jasper could see my distress; I suppose it was obvious enough.
“I had more planned for the date . . . I thought it was going well . . .” he offered.
I’ll be honest, for a split second I was so excited about my idea that I didn’t take in what Jasper was saying, and then I totally did.
“Of course! Yes, let’s continue with the date,” I said, although the excitement from my discovery dissipated a little when I realized that I couldn’t go to Caedmon right then.
But Jasper was watching me closely enough to see the disappointment on my face.
“What was your idea?” he asked.
I bit my lower lip. “You aren’t going to like it.”
“Try me,” he replied.
We were sitting in his truck now. Yes, he had opened the door for me.
“You know how Liam’s mom was arrested for murder,” I explained.
“Something tipped me off . . . oh yeah, seeing the arrest,” Jasper said, gently teasing me.
“Right, sorry, you were there. So, we were trying to prove her innocent,” I said, watching Jasper carefully. He was probably going to groan or look disappointed or something.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m not surprised at all.”
“So, we’ve been trying to piece together the night of Jackie Morris’ disappearance, but there’s been something missing. Articles have been deleted from the Mintwood Library Archives, and we don’t know why.”
“You think someone was trying to cover something up?” Jasper said.
“I’m sure of it,” I said. “There’s something in one of those articles that gives away something about Jackie.”
I left out the part where all of the Newman articles were the ones missing. Jasper liked Detective Cutter as much as I did. There had to be a different explanation.
Jasper looked straight forward and didn’t say anything for several seconds. The more he didn’t talk, the more I worried that I had irrevocably offended him.
“Look, I’m really sorry. I just had the realization now and didn’t think before I spoke. Please, let’s continue with the date. I’m having an awesome time,” I added, in case he couldn’t tell.
He glanced sideways at me. “You’re having an awesome time?”
“Yes,” I said shyly, trying desperately to keep myself from sinking into the truck seat.
“In a perfect world, what would we do next?” he challenged.
I bit my lower lip, but honesty won out.
“We’d go to the Caedmon Chronicle office and research articles about Jackie to see if they have the ones that aren’t available in the Mintwood Library.”
“I suppose you know someone who can get us in to look at said archives after hours on a Friday?”
I couldn’t quite tell, but it almost sounded like Jasper was amused.
“I may know a guy,” I said, blushing furiously. Good thing it was dark out.
“Okay, let’s do that,” he said. Then he turned the truck on without even waiting for an answer.
“Wait a minute, and skip the rest of our date?” I demanded.
We had already started driving down the road.
“Call your friend. We aren’t in Mintwood, so you should have cell reception,” he said.
The phone rang once, and then Hansen Gregory’s voice came through loud and clear.
“Lemmi, what a nice surprise,” said Hansen.
Jasper, hearing the voice on the other end of the line, made a face.
“Hey Hansen, how’s it going?” I said, wiping sweaty palms off on my jeans and then telling myself to stop and then telling myself to stop being neurotic.
“Good, how are you? The three of you out and about causing trouble?” said Hansen.
“Actually, I’m not with Charlie and Greer, but I wondered if I could ask you a favor,” I said.
“Go for it,” said Hansen.
I told him what I wanted and crossed my fingers that he would offer to let me in now, Friday night notwithstanding.
“As luck would have it, our archives are in the basement, and I have a key. Why don’t you swing by?” he said. “Feel free to invite your friends.”
After I hung up the phone Jasper said, “Charlie would never forgive you if you didn’t invite her.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I hedged.
“Seeing into the archives of the Caedmon Chronicle?” said Jasper incredulously. “She probably dreams about that.”
He was right. Charlie would love that.
“But our date . . .” I said.
Despite everything that had just happened, driving through the quiet evening with Jasper, the truck’s headlights leading the way, was somehow comforting.
“This makes it better,” he smiled at me. “Who else can say they sniffed o
ut a murderer on their first date?”
“That’s true,” I said. “And brought reporters along to document it.”
Jasper laughed.
If Charlie ever wrote anything about this I’d kick her out of the house.
Again I looked at my phone.
“Wow, it’s late,” I gasped.
“We were at the Bucket for three hours,” said Jasper.
WHAT!
Time flew when I was with him, what a surprise.
“Oh,” was all I managed to say out loud. Jasper was still smiling, so maybe I didn’t have to say anything else.
I called the house phone, knowing that neither of my friends had plans that night. They were going to wait up until I came home, that much I was sure of, even without having been told.
I told Greer to come to the Caedmon Chronicle office, putting enough force into my voice so she couldn’t possibly argue. Then I hung up before she could even reply.
They were on their way and we were almost there.
Jasper and I continued our date.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hansen Gregory was waiting for us in the parking lot of the Caedmon Chronicle as we drove up. The light in his office was sending a warm yellow glow onto the pavement, telling me that he was working late. Maybe Caedmon’s septic tank drama still hadn’t been resolved.
Jasper and Hansen shook hands and Hansen smiled at me.
“We play in the same flag football league,” Jasper explained.
Of course they did.
“Charlie and Greer should be here any minute,” I said.
As the three of us waited for my friends, I took a deep breath of the cool night air. The weather had turned clear and mild, with the damp earth the only evidence that it had rained.
“What exactly are we looking for here?” Jasper asked.
“There was a guy named Newman who used to work at the barbershop where Jackie was found,” I explained. “Ms. Ivy said that he ended up working at a different barbershop after the one on Main Street closed down, but we can’t find out where. He seems to have disappeared from the record entirely, and I need to know why in order to clear Gerry’s name. Something’s missing.”
Witch Raising Situation (Witch of Mintwood Book 5) Page 15
