"Thank you, Miss Foster. You've always had a good head on your shoulders," said Mr. Spinner. "Such a pity you still haven't found a man, yet."
I felt my eye twitch involuntarily as I fought to keep a smile on my face.
"If only I were a few years younger..." he laughed.
Now I was fighting not to throw up. Lovely.
I looked over and saw Charline reading a tabloid at her register, currently not having a customer to help. Just what I was looking for: a subtle way to annoy Mr. Spinner without sacrificing Bridgette.
"Mr. Spinner, Charline here would be happy to help you," I said. "Charline, please give Mr. Spinner a refund for a porterhouse steak he purchased from us."
"Does he have the receipt?" asked Charline.
"Afraid I've thrown it out," said Mr. Spinner.
"I'm afraid I can't help you, then," she said.
"Excuse me?" he said.
"Can't get you a refund without a receipt. If I gave you one, then it'd only be fair for me to give one to everyone else claiming to have purchased something from us. We'd be bankrupt in half a day."
"But... I..." tried Mr. Spinner, flabbergasted.
This was going better than I hoped.
"Do you have any idea how often people come in, trying to scam us out of our hard earned money? That might work on some other cashiers," Charline gave a nod to Bridgette. "Not me, though. I put my foot down."
"What if you got a manager's override?" I offered, trying my best to not laugh.
Charline thought about it a moment. Mr. Spinner looked as if he was going to start screaming.
"That'd force my hand, I suppose," conceded Charline.
"I suppose it would. Alright, Charline. I'm giving you a manager's override just this once to help out Mr Spinner," I said.
"Lucky you," said Charline to Mr. Spinner. "Never had that happen before. Best thank Miss Foster for that."
"Erm, yes," said Mr. Spinner. I had never seen the man look so confused. "Erm, thanks for your help, Zoey."
"No problem, Mr. Spinner," I said with a smile. "Bridgette, would you mind coming with me to my office?"
"Sure," she said, failing at hiding her own smile and following me in.
"Maybe Charline has her uses after all," said Bart, passing through the door to my office as Bridgette closed it.
I sat down and rubbed my eyes. What was going on?
"Bridgette," I said, as she sat down on the couch. "Did you see what happened?"
"I only caught the tail end of it, unfortunately," she said. "I've never seen Thomas so angry before!"
"We all know he takes his work seriously."
"Yes, but still. Did you see the way he was cutting up that slab while glaring at Mr. Spinner? He was going at that thing like it was the man himself!"
I nodded. She wasn't wrong.
"You're not going to fire him, are you?" she asked. She tensed up as she said this. Everyone was family in the store, and no one wanted to see anyone leave. Well, except for maybe Charline.
"No," I said. "I'm hoping it's just a one time thing. I'll have a chat with him later about how that's not acceptable, although I'm sure he knows that. Plus, he's the best butcher in town. If I let him go I'll lose half our customers. There's no way I could replace him."
"Good," she said, visibly relaxing. "The man would never hurt a thing. Or, you know, at least not a living thing."
Bridgette peeked through the blinds on my window, looking out at the registers.
"Is it okay if I hide out in here a bit longer? Looks like Charline and Mr. Spinner are still talking. Don't want to get brought into that delightful conversation."
"That makes two of us."
Chapter 3
"This was all your idea in the first place!" I said, checking myself in the mirror. I had on a modest blue dress that I hadn't worn in such a long time. Luckily, I still managed to fit in it, although it was a bit snug. My mother always told me how it brought out my blue eyes.
"Was it?" asked Bart. He was making himself comfortable on my bed, the TV remote in paw's reach. I was still surprised he could physically manifest himself enough to interact with material objects if he felt like it. He was always hogging the remote, which I wouldn't have minded if he didn't have the worst taste in shows. "Maybe you're right. It's been such a long day I've nearly forgotten."
"So you'll come with?" I asked.
"No. I've been bored enough today. I'm going to stay in and watch some reality TV."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Reality TV at least lets me feel like I get to be among some drama. The bonfire is going to be a snoozefest."
"That's not necessarily true," I lied. This thing was probably going to be boring, and I wanted to at least have Bart to fall back on for some entertainment.
"If something exciting happens, I promise to never leave you stranded at a boring party ever again. How about that?"
"Your loss," I said, grabbing my keys. "No ordering any channels I don't have while I'm gone again, okay?"
"It was just the one time," he mumbled back. "You don't have to bring it up every time you leave me alone."
I closed and locked the door to my house. After business at Foster's Market had picked up a few year ago, I was able to finally buy a house to call my own. Three bedrooms, 1 bath, and a nice kitchen. It wasn't anything special, but it was mine. I opened and closed the gate on my white picket fence, walking along the side to my car and clicking the unlock button a few dozen times.
Bridgette lived about 15 minutes away, on the outskirts of town. When she and Dan moved back to town, he purchased a plot of land surrounded by a dozen or so acres of woods. They built a large house, practically a mansion by Twistchapel standards, and lived a luxurious life. The only reason Bridgette had wanted a job was to help keep busy as they waited to raise a family.
I pulled up along the side street they setup in front of their home, having to pull up quite a bit due to all the other cars already there. It looked like half of the town must have been invited! I got out of my car and took a deep breath, looking up at the summer night sky. While many of my friends thought I was extroverted, I was secretly an introvert. I soaked in the peaceful quiet of the stars and the full moon, bracing myself for the barrage of noise on the other side of the house.
I got out and made my way to the backyard. Dozens of people stood around talking, drinks in hand. I waved hello to a few familiar faces, not wanting to interrupt any ongoing conversations.
"Zoey! You made it!"
I turned around as Bridgette wrapped me up in a tight hug.
"Aren't you looking good in that little dress?" she said.
"I'm not sure if 'little' is the right-" I tried.
"Dan. Dan!" shouted Bridgette, waving her husband over.
"Zoey! It's been too long," said Dan, going in for a hug as well.
"Hey, Dan! It has been too long. Bridgette's been telling me how swamped work has you," I said.
"It sure does. We're almost done with a big job for the mayor, and I'll hopefully get some more of my evenings and weekends back."
Dan had gotten into landscaping from a young age. Dan went to college and became a civil engineer, but after a couple of years decided he missed Twistchapel too much. What started out as mowing a lawn here and there for an easy $10, turned into a large landscaping company, employing around 40 people. While the work afforded him some really nice things, it took up much of his summer months.
"Weekends free are always great," I said.
"Like you would know," laughed Bridgette. "You're always working, Zoey. You should really consider hiring a manager. That way you can take off from time to time."
"Maybe I'll look into that," I said. I had considered it, but was worried to hire anybody before I got more of a grip on my magic. Wouldn't want to have someone reviewing a tape of me accidentally turning a can of soup into a frog, or something.
Dan waved over to somebody behind me. "Zoey, there's somebody I'd like for
you to meet. We knew each other back at college, and he recently moved to town."
"Great..." I said.
Here we go.
I turned to shake the man's hand, and broke into a coughing fit.
The man was well over 6 feet tall, with dark hair and brown eyes. He wore a black suit well, and had a beautiful smile.
"Woah, are you okay?" the man asked.
"Y-Yes," I coughed. "I'm Zoey, n-nice to meet you."
I thrived at first impressions.
"Hello. I'm Drake. Drake Robinson."
Bridgette raised her eyebrows and smiled at me from behind Drake.
"Drake's new in town and is looking forward to meeting people. Zoey here owns Foster's Market."
"Foster's Market, is that right?" smiled Drake. "I haven't gotten a chance to shop in there yet, but from what I've heard so far it's not a place to be missed."
"Oh, I don't know about that," I laughed. Bridgette and Dan moved away to meet more guests, Bridgette throwing up a thumbs up back to me as she did. "So, what brings you to Twistchapel?"
"Work."
"Quite the conversationalist, aren't you?"
"I'm sorry, I'm not used to talking so openly about my job," he laughed. "I should really break that habit, I'm a-"
"Do you really think that would work?" boomed a man's voice a few yards away.
"Who's that?" asked Drake looking around.
"How dare you come here and try to speak with me!" yelled the voice. I recognized it this time and let out a sigh.
"Someone you're not going to want to meet quite yet," I mumbled. "If you'll excuse me, I should make sure this doesn't concern me."
“I'll join y-” began Drake.
“Drake!” called out Dan in the opposite direction. “Come over here, there's a few people I wanna introduce you to!”
“I guess I won't be joining you after all,” chuckled Drake. “I hope we get to talk more later.”
“Absolutely,” I said, leaving Drake.
I passed through a few conversation circles, looking around for the source of the yelling. Sure enough, I found Mr. Spinner.
"You will never get a loan in this town for as long as I live!" shouted Mr. Spinner. To my relief, the target of his yelling wasn't at Thomas. To my despair, it was a petite, red headed woman on the verge of tears.
"B-but this isn't fair..." she said.
"I'm done with you," Mr. Spinner barked, turning away and storming off.
The crowd parted as he neared, and collapsed in again once he passed. Murmurs sprung up all around, as the woman covered her face with her hands and started sobbing. I rushed up to the woman and put an arm around her. I knew what it was like to have to deal with such a vile man.
"It's okay, ma'am," I said. "Mr. Spinner is a nasty old man. What he said isn't true, there are other banks in Twistchapel that would happily talk with you if you're needing a loan."
"Thank you," she sniffed, pulling her hands away from her face. "I just can't believe he went off on me like that in the middle of this lovely party."
"That was very odd," I said. "My name is Zoey Foster, by the way. Have you two met before?"
"Hi Zoey, I'm Jill Arnold," she said with a small smile. "And yes, we have. I moved here just a few months ago and was thinking about setting up a beauty salon."
"That would be lovely," I said.
"I thought so, too. I went to cosmetology school and was top of my class, and I've worked at several salons all over the Midwest."
"What brought you to Twistchapel?"
"It's... it's complicated."
"Oh. Never mind then," I said. Initially, I just asked to be polite. Now I wanted to know more than anything. I'd try to find out at a better time for her.
"I went to get a loan and he denied me the second he heard my idea," Jill continued.
"Really? Before looking into anything?" That was cold, even for Mr. Spinner. He wouldn't deny loans to people that had the necessary collateral.
"That's what happened. I have no idea what else I could have done."
"It sounds like there really wasn't anything else you could do," I said.
"I came to the bonfire tonight just to meet some new people, and he came up and started shouting at me."
I shook my head. How bizarre.
"Ugh, I could just kill that man," she muttered.
"What was that?"
"Uh, it was nothing," she said, looking around. "I should really get going. It was nice meeting you, Zoey."
"It was a pleasure meeting you, too," I said. "I work down at Foster's Market. Please feel free to swing by if you ever need to talk, or are interested to hear what other places around town might be able to give you a loan for your beauty salon."
"I just might do that," she said as she turned to leave. "Have a good evening."
Chapter 4
After Jill left, I spent some time making small talk with some old acquaintances. While I really should have been paying more attention to them, I couldn't stop thinking about the conversation between Jill and Mr. Spinner. Why would he have denied her loan immediately? Why would he have been the one to approach her? It sounded more like Jill was the one who came up to talk to him at the party.
"Everyone, please gather near the bonfire for a special announcement!" rang out Dan's voice, breaking my thought process.
"An announcement?" murmured people around me.
The crowd all shifted towards the fire pit with guesses of what could be going on. I had a few ideas, but the flicker of the bonfire distracted me. I should really get back to learning magic. It wasn't good for me to stay afraid. If I didn't start practicing, one day I'd accidentally have it go off again, and possibly hurt other people. The only way to stop that from happening was to get a better grasp on what I could do.
Once the crowd had finished gathering around, Dan and Bridgette stood on a couple of tree stumps to better be seen by those in the back. Dan held out a champagne glass and tapped against it to quiet the people down.
"Thank you, everybody, for making it out here tonight," said Dan. "We've grown up in this town, and even though we were away for some time, we've always viewed all of Twistchapel as our family."
"Awww," cooed the crowd.
"So we wanted you all to be the first to know," Dan continued. "Our family is growing bigger by one mor-"
"We're pregnant!" shouted Bridgette.
The crowd clapped and cheered at the announcement. Bridgette beamed down at me, the happiest I've ever seen her. I was thrilled for her. I didn't even know they were trying yet.
Several people rushed forward to ask them questions, so I made my way to the back of the crowd. I could talk to Bridgette about all the details later.
I wandered off a little closer to the treeline and breathed in some fresh air. What a wonderful night.
"When are you due?" someone in the crowd asked.
Dan smiled as he said, "Our baby is due-"
"AAAAAAAA!" screamed a woman's voice.
I looked around for the person screaming. It sounded like it was coming from the woods.
I started running before I could think, trying to get to the woman to help. As I ran, I realized I had no idea what I was going to see. How was I going to help? Maybe my magic would just come to me if I needed it. I wish Bart was here, he could probably lend some assistance.
Making my way into the woods, I saw a woman up ahead looking down at the ground.
"What's the matter ma'am?" I asked as I drew nearer.
The woman turned to me and I nearly fell over. Aside from her plain clothing, she looked almost inhuman. The woman's eyes were bright green, and a light radiated off of her face. She looked me over briefly before speaking.
"Ah, a witch. Good," said the woman, as a pair of wings spread out behind her. "Maybe the truth will actually come out."
"Who... what are you?" I asked.
"A messenger."
I glanced down to where she had been looking and gasped.
"Mr
. Spinner..." I said. He was lying down on his back. It looked like he had been cut in his chest multiple times, almost like a wild animal attacked him.
"Did... Did you do this?" I asked the creature.
"No. I was brought here simply to notify," she said, looking over my shoulder. "Others are coming."
"Wait, who did this?"
"I can not say, magical one. Best of luck," said the woman, who with a beat of her wings took off into the night sky.
What was that about?
I looked down at Mr. Spinner again, trying to absorb all the details. It looked like he had been stabbed in his chest a few times, but there was no weapon lying around. I checked the grass all around for marking that he was dragged from another location. No luck. Why had he come this far into the forest, so far away from everyone?
There was some black hair scattered about on the ground. Could that be the killer's hair?
"Zoey, stay back!" barked a man's voice. Dan's friend, Drake, rushed past me and knelt down by Mr. Spinner. Drake looked gravely at him, grabbing the man's wrist and looking at his own watch.
"Is... is he dead?" I asked. I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.
Drake ignored my question. "Do you know who this man is?"
I nodded. "His name is Ed Spinner. He's a loan officer at Twistchapel United Bank."
"A woman screamed from this direction. Did you see her?"
Did I ever. Unfortunately, I couldn't say anything. Normal people hearing about the paranormal tended to either freak out, or not believe you.
"I didn't," I lied. "She must have run away by the time I showed up."
Drake nodded without saying anything.
Several more people joined us, filling the night's air with gasps.
After a few more seconds of looking at his watch, Drake's head dropped as he let go of Mr. Spinner's wrist. He took a moment to compose himself, then turned around to address the growing crowd. "Alright, everybody. This is now an active crime scene. Everybody stay back."
"What happened?" asked a man in the crowd. "Is Mr. Spinner alright?"
"I'm not at liberty to say right now. Please go back to the bonfire and continue enjoying your evening."
The Befuddled Butcher: Twistchapel Cozy Mystery Book 1 Page 2
