by Raven Snow
“Parents and Poisonings”
Supernatural Witch Cozy Mystery
Lainswich Witches Series Book 6
Raven Snow
© 2016
Raven Snow
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. If you have not purchased this book from Amazon or received it directly from the author you are reading a pirated copy. If you have downloaded an illegal copy of this book & enjoyed it, please consider purchasing a legal copy. Your respect & support encourages me to continue writing & producing high quality books for you.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner & are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Cover images are licensed stock photos, images shown for illustrative purposes only. Any person(s) that may be depicted on the cover are models.
Edition v1.00 (2016.11.05)
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Authors Note
Books by Raven Snow
Chapter One
It was ten at night when Rowen Greensmith’s cousin showed up crying on her front doorstep. Rose was wearing a cute red blouse and a pleated skirt. Her hair was done in wavy curls. She looked absolutely lovely apart from the mascara running down her face. “I screwed up,” she sobbed.
Rowen had been settled in for the night, watching a movie with her husband. Eric was peering out from the door to the den now, their dog Chester looking apprehensive—like he wasn’t sure whether to raise the alarm or not. Rowen led her cousin past them both. She had a good feeling she knew what this was about.
“Meeting the parents didn’t go all that well, I take it?” Rowen asked, taking her cousin to the sofa and sitting down beside her.
Rose shook her head and began to cry even harder.
Rowen sighed. She had been afraid of something like this. Just last week, Rose had been excited. She had told the whole family over dinner that she was finally meeting Ben’s parents. They had been dating for a while, and this was a big step for their relationship. Meeting the parents meant something.
She was right, of course. It did mean something. That was the problem. Ben Williamson was close to his family. As the chief of police, they were even part of his image. Unfortunately, they were difficult people to please. Rowen knew this from experience. Back in high school, she had been the one dating Ben. She still remembered the evening she had first met his family. From the moment she had walked through the front door, they had been glaring. Rowen had known right off the bat that there would be no winning them over. Maybe, deep down, she had hoped that Rose would have better luck. If anyone could win a person over, it was Rose.
“What happened?” asked Rowen, putting an arm around her cousin.
Rose took a deep breath, like she was getting ready to come right out with everything. Her gaze strayed to Eric, as if only just now realizing he was there. She looked back down at the floor.
Rowen waved a hand, indicating Eric should make himself scarce for a little bit. “Can you put some coffee on or something please, honey?” Rowen had a feeling this was going to be a long night anyway.
Eric nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. Once they were alone, Rose took a deep breath. “Everything seemed to be going so well at first. His aunt and uncle and brothers and sister were all really friendly.”
Rowen didn’t remember Ben’s siblings as being particularly friendly. She remembered them as obnoxious bullies. Granted, they had all been in high school then. People changed. “Let me guess,” Rowen said, when Rose hesitated. “His mother disliked you from the start?”
Rose rubbed at her eyes and nodded. “I think it’s because I brought wine. She said she didn’t allow drinking in the house and poured it down the drain.”
That sounded like her. “That’s not your fault.”
“I should have made sure it was all right to bring alcohol,” said Rose, shaking her head.
“No,” Rowen said, quickly. “That’s not what I mean. I mean, she hates Greensmiths by default. She didn’t like me.”
“I know that,” Rose said with a sigh. “But I’m adopted. I’m not a Greensmith by blood or anything. I thought, maybe…” she trailed off sadly.
“What did Ben say?” Rowen asked. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have stood for something so rude.
“He was running late,” said Rose, hanging her head. “I was there for about twenty minutes alone with them and…Oh, Rowen, it was so awkward.”
Rowen could only imagine. Not that she had to. Rose launched into the whole story after that, explaining every gory detail.
“We all sat in the living room together, and she didn’t really say anything to me. She was going in and out, checking on dinner. Ben’s family were asking me questions about, you know, normal stuff.” Rose took a deep breath. “They asked about work, and Mrs. Williamson popped in to mention she was good friends with Julia Martinez, so she didn’t get her news from anywhere else. She apologized, but you know what? Thinking back, I don’t think she meant she was sorry at all. There was no reason to point that out. I think she was just doing it to be hurtful.”
Of course she had only said that to be hurtful. Rowen remained patient and nodded, letting Rose draw her own conclusions at her own pace. “It certainly sounds like it,” she agreed, waiting for Rose to vent the rest.
“Then they asked about how our family is doing with the store,” Rose continued.
Rowen’s mom and sisters had opened a store downtown called Odds & Ends. It was a little new age boutique that saw a lot of business from adventurous youths and bored housewives looking to have their fortunes told. Rowen nodded. She couldn’t imagine that had gone well.
“Mrs. Williamson popped in again. She had a lot to say about that.” Rose shook her head as she thought back on it. “She said…Well, mostly she just didn’t approve, I guess. I think she didn’t, anyway. She talked a lot and said a bunch of different things and it all sounded perfectly polite at the time. Replaying i
t in my head now though, I guess it was obvious things weren’t going well.”
Rowen thought she was drawing a pretty clear picture of what had happened. “She wore you down, huh?”
“I guess,” Rose said, taking a deep breath. “I don’t know what happened.”
“She wore me down,” offered Rowen. “I’m sure you remember. It happens to the best of us. There’s just no pleasing people like her.”
“Yeah, but you’re way more hot headed than I am,” Rose shot back. She frowned right after she said it. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Rowen assured her. “This doesn’t sound all that bad so far though.” If anything, it sounded about like she had expected.
“That’s not all.” Rose folded her hands in her lap. “Apparently Ben used to have this girlfriend named Sarah. I think Mrs. Williamson liked Sarah a whole lot more than she liked me.”
“Why do you think that?” she asked, frowning and realizing too late that it was an incredibly stupid thing to ask.
“Because she wouldn’t stop talking about her!” Rose exclaimed. “Sarah still brings her fresh flowers sometimes because Sarah is a florist. Sarah tells the best jokes. Sarah and Ben dated for such a long time—that’s why she accidentally slipped and called me Sarah!”
Rowen cringed. She wasn’t sure she had ever heard Rose quite this out of sorts and angry before. “What did you do?” she asked, certain Rose had done something. She wouldn’t be here so late at night if something extreme hadn’t happened.
Rose took a deep breath. “I snapped…I, uh…I think I said something along the lines of, ‘I’m not Sarah,’ or something?”
“That’s not so bad,” offered Rowen.
“But I yelled it, and then I ran away,” said Rose.
“Okay, that does sound a little…strange.” Rowen gave her cousin’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Why did you run away?”
“I don’t know! I panicked!” Rose snapped. “She just…she made me so uncomfortable. I mean, I excused myself before I left, but…” She trailed off.
“What did Ben do?” Rowen asked. She couldn’t imagine that he had just sat idly by while this happened.
“He followed me out and tried to get me to come back in. I guess I was mad he hadn’t said something on my behalf sooner. He’s been calling all night, but I’ve been ignoring his calls.” She groaned. “I screwed up, didn’t I?”
“His mother could drive anyone insane,” Rowen assured her. “Ben has just been around her so long, he’s probably just blind to it. Which is no excuse. He should be more sensitive to your needs.” That sounded like something she should say.
Rose pulled her phone from her purse and switched the screen on. She looked down at it in her lap. “I’ve just been driving around for, like, an hour. I didn’t want to go home. Everyone would ask what happened, and I…I just didn’t want to talk about it to all of them.”
“That’s fine,” said Rowen. She understood perfectly well where she was coming from. “You can spend the night here if you want.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble,” said Rose, out of common courtesy. It seemed like she had already decided before she got here that she was spending the night.
“You’re no trouble,” Rowen assured her, which was the truth. She didn’t mind Rose staying over in the least. “I’ll set you up in the guest room.” It was still strange to Rowen to have one of those. Back at the Greensmith house, every single room had been packed.
Rose managed a smile. It faded quickly as she looked back down at her phone. “Do you think I should call him back?”
Rowen looked at the screen on Rose’s phone. She saw eight missed calls blinking there. “Not if you don’t want to,” she said. “I can call him and tell him you’re okay. He might be worried.”
“Don’t call him,” Rose said quickly, blushing. “That’s too embarrassing.”
“I’ll text him then,” offered Rowen.
Rose seemed to go for that. Eric picked that moment to come in with the coffee. He must have been listening from the other room. Smart man. “Why don’t you go upstairs? Rowen has more pajamas than one woman could possibly need, and that outfit looks uncomfortable,” he said, offering Rose a mug.
Rose took the mug and looked to Rowen to make sure that was okay. Of course it was. She headed upstairs.
“So, how bad is it?” asked Eric quietly, once Rose had gone.
“It’s not great,” Rowen whispered back. “But it’s about what I expected, honestly. You don’t know Ben’s mother. She’s a monster.” Rowen opened up her contact list and started typing out a message to Ben.
“Is this the one you made go bald?” asked Eric.
Rowen didn’t even remember telling Eric that story. Back when Rowen had been dating Ben, his mother had accused her of putting a curse on her. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t,” said Rowen. “And if I did, she probably deserved it. You’ve never been trapped in a room with that witch.”
Eric raised an eyebrow at his wife.
“In the bad way,” said Rowen, rolling her eyes. “A witch in the bad way.” She finished typing out her message: Rose is staying with me tonight. She’s upset. That seemed direct enough. It didn’t assign any blame. Rowen doubted that Rose would thank her for lecturing him.
“So are they broken up or what?” asked Eric.
Rowen looked down as her phone buzzed with a reply from Ben. That was promising. “Well he seems concerned about her at least.”
Good, said the reply. Not good that she’s upset, said a second message a moment later. Can you ask her to call me?
No, Rowen texted right back. She doesn’t want to talk. She’s upset. Make this right. Maybe Rowen would lecture him just a little.
Eric looked over her shoulder and read the next reply that came in. What did I do? Rowen didn’t even bother replying to that. He knew.
“Are you going to tell him?” asked Eric.
“He knows,” said Rowen.
Eric didn’t look so sure about that. “What did he do?”
“He didn’t stand up for his girlfriend!” Rowen snapped, horrified that Eric even had to ask. “You were listening from the kitchen, weren’t you? You should know that.”
“Yeah, but it was his mother,” Eric replied. “We can’t really help the stupid things our family members say.”
Rowen just shook her head. “That’s not how it works,” she said. “If your parents were complaining about me, I’d expect you to say something to them about it.”
“I do all the time,” He insisted.
“What?” She looked at him. “Your parents complain about me? How often do they complain about me?”
Rose appeared on the stairs, saving Eric from having to answer that. She was wearing a baggy t-shirt and flannel bottoms, looking a bit uncertain as to what to do with herself. “I’ll get some pillows and a blanket,” said Eric, standing.
Rowen headed upstairs and led Rose to the guest room. Just about every family member had spent a night in it for one reason or another. They’d put in a television just to keep them occupied. “I texted Ben,” Rowen told her. “He knows you’re safe. There’s nothing to do now but take a load off. We can watch some movies, just us girls. I’ll get Eric to make popcorn. Does that sound good?”
Rose sat down on the edge of the bed. She nodded and managed a smile. “That sounds good.”
“Good.” Rowen switched on the television. She began to pull up a list of movies to screen when her phone rang. She handed the remote to Rose. Who would be calling at this time of night? As it turned out, it was Ben. Why in the world was he actually calling? She had been clear enough in her text, hadn’t she? Oh, well. At least he wasn’t calling Rose anymore. “I’ll be right back,” she told Rose. “You pick out the first movie.”
Rose looked a bit suspicious, but Rowen hurried out the door and into the hallway before she could ask any questions. She answered the phone. “What do you want?”
“Sorry,” Ben said qu
ickly, sounding a bit disarmed by the hostility. “I just…I really need to talk to Rose.”
“She doesn’t want to talk right now,” said Rowen. “She’s, understandably, kind of upset. I always told you your mother was evil.”
“This isn’t about that.” Ben was beginning to sound impatient. “My uncle just died.”
That shut Rowen up. “Oh,” she managed.
“I’m still here at my mother’s house,” continued Ben. “It’s being treated as an active crime scene.”
“Oh,” said Rowen again.
“I couldn’t really text Rose all of that. It’s sensitive information. I could get in trouble,” he explained, sounding annoyed but, surprisingly, calm. “She wouldn’t answer my calls, so would you—”
