by N. M. Howell
The pieces of cookie began to smoke, and then disintegrated into a pile of ash in her hand. We all stared at the small pile of gray ash she held.
“What does that mean?” Rory asked, stepping forward.
Mrs. Brody looked up at each of us in turn. “Magic.”
I stared at her incredulously. “Magic? What do you mean?”
“Dark magic,” she corrected. “This cookie was tainted with dark magic.”
“I knew it!” Grace cried. “You murdered my husband!” She collapsed on the ground again and sobbed into her hands.
The few remaining people in the crowd moved aside as the paramedics arrived with the gurney, and worked together with Jordan and Mayor Scott to lift Trey’s body onto the table.
Sheriff Reese came up to us and took in the scene. “What happened?” he asked.
Mayor Scott explained the situation to him, carefully explaining how Trey had choked on a cookie and we were unable to resuscitate him.
“He was murdered!” Grace shouted hysterically to the Sheriff. “The baker woman. I saw her. She gave him a poisoned cookie.”
Sheriff Reese looked to Mrs. Pots who was still standing frozen in place, her hands pressed firmly over her mouth. Bailey pulled her tighter into a hug, holding her tight.
“Is this true?” he asked.
“Of course, not,” Mrs. Brody spat at him. “Don’t be absurd. You know Mrs. Pots is not capable of any such thing.”
The Sheriff nodded. “Indeed,” he whispered quietly to himself. He rubbed his chin as he looked back and forth between Mrs. Brody, Grace, and the place on the ground where Trey had fallen.
“She did,” Grace sobbed. “I saw her. She murdered him because she thinks we were going to put her out of business.”
“These are very serious accusations,” Sheriff Reese said plainly to her. He then turned to the rest of us and asked, “Did any of you see this?”
I shook my head. “He choked.”
“His face suggests differently,” he said to me.
“You murdered my husband,” Grace repeated, her face pressed into her hands as she rolled onto her side on the ground.
Mrs. Brody sat next to her and stroked her hair, then looked up at the Sheriff. “The cookie was poisoned. This we know.”
Sheriff Reese nodded. “That I believe.” He looked to Mrs. Pots and his eyes grew sad.
“I’m so sorry, Nancy,” he said slowly as he made his way to join Mrs. Pots on the other side of the table. “I’m going to have to take you in. Protocol, and all that.”
She stared at him and nodded her head slowly. Poor woman seemed too in shock to really understand what was going on.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Sheriff,” I said. “Mrs. Pots had nothing to do with this.”
“If she did in fact give him the poisoned cookie, that makes her a suspect.” Then, after seeing my angry eyes glaring at him, he added, “I have to do something.”
I shook my head at him, then stood and went to join Bailey in holding Mrs. Pots.
“He called for backup on his walkie-talkie. “This table is evidence. Please, everyone, stand back. The party is over.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said to Mrs. Pots.
“We are all coming with you,” Bailey added.
I saw Jane, Rory, and Mrs. Brody all nod in agreement.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out,” I said to Mrs. Pots as I stroked her arm. I could feel her shaking.
“No,” Mayor Scott said. “There has to be an explanation.” He had known Mrs. Pots since he was a kid, and, just like the rest of us, couldn’t believe she had anything to do with this.
Sheriff Reese tilted Mrs. Pots’ chin up to make eye contact with her when she continued to stare down at her feet. “Did you give him that cookie?”
She stared back at him, then nodded.
Sheriff Reese sighed, then brought out his hand cuffs and turned the poor small woman around and cuffed her hands behind her back.
I kept looking back and forth between Grace and Mrs. Pots, not having any clue what to do or say.
“Don’t worry,” I said finally, unsure who I was really speaking to.
Grace stared up at us incredulously, her lips pursed in a tight line and her eyes looking angrier than I’d ever seen them. “Why are you standing by her?” she asked. “She murdered my husband.”
I looked down at Grace and shook my head. “I don’t believe that. There must be an explanation. There’s absolutely no way Mrs. Pots is responsible for this. Please, believe me.”
Grace glared daggers at me, then snapped, “You always were a pathetic one.” She then stood up and turned to follow the paramedics back to the ambulance. The lights had been turned off and the crew didn’t seem to be in a rush. Why would they be, as the guy was already dead and there was nothing they could do about it.
We all watched as Grace got into the ambulance with the paramedics, and then they drove off, leaving the rest of us standing in the rear yard in silence.
6
“Until we have more information, we’re going to treat this as a crime scene,” Sheriff Reese told us. “Mrs. Brody, please make sure the rest of the guests clear the yard. I’ll ask a few of my men to stay behind to keep an eye on things.”
He waved his hand at the direction of the table. “Can you girls please take a look at the food and let me know if you find anything… unnatural, okay? I’ll expect a full report in the morning.”
“We’re going with Mrs. Pots.” I crossed my arms stubbornly and stared Sheriff Reese in the eye.
He let out a loud sigh, but kept his silence.
Mrs. Pots slowly pushed herself back up and flattened out her apron. “No, dear, you’ll do no such thing.”
“Don’t be absurd,” Bailey said. “We’re coming with you. We all know it wasn’t you, Mrs. Pots.”
Mrs. Pots shook her head. “It was my cookie. I gave him that cookie. He died because of something I gave him.” She then turned to Sheriff Reese. “I’ll cooperate fully. Take me in.”
We all stared at her in shock. My mouth fell agape, and I couldn’t formulate what to even say to her.
Finally, I settled on something dumb, as per usual. “But, no.” I looked back and forth between Sheriff Reese and Mrs. Pots, expecting either to say something along the lines of “Just kidding” or “Happy October Fool’s Day” or whatever.
When neither said anything, and Sheriff Reese began leading Mrs. Pots back to his car, I felt completely and utterly deflated.
“Mrs. Brody, the guests?” the Sheriff reminded her. “Please, see to it that this place gets cleared out and that the treats are examined thoroughly. The boys will take some samples, but given the funny nature of what seems to be going on here, I’d like to hear firsthand from you what you think happened.”
Mrs. Brody nodded dutifully to the young Sheriff Reese.
“And don’t you think for one second that any of you are off the hook,” he added. “I expect you all in my office first thing tomorrow morning for questioning. If any funny business is going on, I better not be able to trace it back to you lot.”
With that he left, and Mrs. Pots followed with her head hung low.
Mayor Scott walked up to us and rubbed his forehead, a stress habit that he had adopted earlier that month, I noticed. “We’ll follow Reese to the precinct. Call me if you find anything, okay? Promise you won’t do anything… out of the ordinary.” He eyed me when he said those last words.
I nodded slowly to him, then watched him and Jordan follow Sheriff Reese to his car.
“I don’t understand,” I finally managed. “I just… I just don’t understand.”
“Neither do any of us, dear,” Mrs. Brody said. She moved to stand beside me and then placed one hand on my shoulder. I could feel a tear trickling down my cheek.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do to help her now,” Rory said. “So, we might as well do as he says and take a good look at the crime scene.”
&nbs
p; “It’s not a crime scene,” I said stubbornly. “We all know Mrs. Pots isn’t capable of murder. Even accidental murder.”
Rory nodded to me. “I know.”
“And there’s no way she would have found that kind of dark magic to put in a cookie,” I continued. “We’re the only witches she knows in town, and none of us conjured anything up like that. Right?” I looked back and forth between my housemates and Mrs. Brody. They all nodded in agreement. Thank the spirits. I let out a loud breath I didn’t know I was holding.
It felt weird discussing something as serious as murder with a tiny little pink-haired witch and three adult women dressed as cats. Given our track record, though, I really shouldn’t have been surprised.
“I’ll go about sending the rest of the lingerers home,” Mrs. Brody said as she made her way back around the table to join the rest of the guests.
Two officers had arrived and were cordoning off the dessert table and surrounding area with police tape.
“Is that absolutely necessary?” I asked. “It’s our backyard. No one else will be coming around once we get the guests to leave.”
One of the officers, I knew him as Jack, shrugged. “Protocol, miss.” Jack went about collecting some crumbs from the ground as evidence and tucked the little clear bag away in his jacket pocket.
I sighed. “Yeah, okay. Sure.”
I sat down on the grass and rubbed my temples, trying to think. There was absolutely no way Mrs. Brody could have been involved, of that much I was sure. It’s just a matter of proving it. How we were going to do that with a firsthand witness speaking against us, I had no idea.
“Do you think Grace will be okay?” Bailey asked me quietly as she joined me on the ground.
I shook my head. “Doubt it. How would you feel if the man you just married died?”
Bailey looked down at her feet. “I can’t even imagine. The poor girl.”
“At least, she still has the business,” Jane offered, joining us on the ground as well. “Hopefully, that keeps her distracted through this. When my grandmother died two years ago, it was during the middle of exams. It made writing the exams more difficult, but the distraction really helped me through it.”
“Yeah, I hope you’re right,” I said. I made a mental note to call Emily in the morning.
After a few minutes, Mrs. Brody joined us and let us know the guests had all left.
Rory sighed and looked around the yard. “It’s such a shame. The party was just getting started. It’s not even midnight yet.”
“Why does this always seem to happen to us?” I asked. “First, the Shadow Festival, now this.”
Mrs. Brody crossed her arms and gave me a stern look. “This has nothing to do with any of us. It’s nothing more than an unfortunate event at an unfortunate time.”
“I guess,” I agreed.
“Now, let’s get this thing figured out before poor Mrs. Pots rots away in jail, shall we?” Mrs. Brody moved to the other side of the dessert table and began inspecting the treats. The rest of us joined her, and we spent the next hour or so carefully going over every piece of food.
“Well, there’s definitely nothing wrong with any of the other food,” Mrs. Brody announced after a thorough inspection.
“The entire table is fine,” Bailey agreed. She waved her hands once more over the entirety of the table, and then nodded. “Definitely no traces of magic. None whatsoever.”
“So, it’s just the one cookie, then?” I began poking through Mrs. Pots’ bags and containers under the table. “I’m not sensing any traces of magic in any of her things. Don’t you think at least a small trace would show up where the cookie was stored?”
“Absolutely,” Mrs. Brody said. “Unless she conjured the magic on the spot, but we all know she’s not capable of that.”
I laughed. “She’s not a witch. Of course, she’s not capable of that.”
“Not only that,” Rory added. “She’s the kindest woman in town. Even if she did have the ability, she still wouldn’t have been capable of that sort of magic.”
We all nodded in agreement.
“So, now what?” I asked.
“We find as many crumbs as we can, and try and learn as much as we can about the magic that killed Trey,” Bailey answered.
We all set about searching the grass for any remaining crumbs. It was the middle of the night, so it was easier said than done. Mrs. Brody had waved over some of the surrounding lights, but, between the four of us crawling around on the ground and the inconsistent flicker of the candle light, our shadows made the task even more difficult.
“Nice, look what I found,” Jane said after a few long minutes of searching. She waved a large chunk of orange cookie in front of us. “Must have rolled under the table.”
“Awesome. Great work,” I told her.
Mrs. Brody waved her hand over the treat and a dark aura began to glow around it. “That’s the same cookie, alright. Be careful.”
I reached for a container under the table and handed it to Jane, who carefully placed the cookie inside.
“Shall we go in where there’s more light?” Rory suggested.
I sighed. “Yeah, I guess so.” I took in the scene of the decorated yard one last time. “It really does look amazing out here.” Thick white smoke still clung to the base of the trees that surrounded the yard, glowing a warm yellow from the surrounding lanterns and other lit decorations. It was gloriously spooky.
We all began to head into the house when Mrs. Brody’s watch alarm went off.
“Oh, will you look at that,” she said as she inspected the large gaudy watch around her wrist. “It’s midnight.”
“Happy midnight,” I said unenthusiastically.
Bailey laughed at me. “That’s the spirit.” She rolled her eyes.
We all looked up at the moon, which was nearly full and glowing a warm orange. The sky was quite cloudy and we couldn’t see the stars, but the glow from the moon illuminated the surroundings all on its own.
“Come on, let’s go,” Mrs. Brody said as she led the way back to the house. I hung back, not quite wanting to give up on the magic of the night just yet.
I took in a deep breath of the cool autumn air, soaking in all the positive energy the moon gave off. I could feel myself grow calmer by the second. I then shivered, realizing the strange effect the moon just had on me. I grew up a witch, so I knew we had a strong relationship with nature, but I’d never really felt it this intensely before. Growing up near New York City, we really didn’t have access to this much unspoiled nature.
I sighed, then reluctantly followed the rest of the girls and Mrs. Brody inside. At least, I felt invigorated, and felt like I could take on just about anything right then. Thank the spirits, as I had a feeling the next few days were going to be long ones.
Everyone was clustered around the kitchen table when I arrived. The container with the remaining cookie sat at the center of the table, and I noticed three particularly curious looking cats had joined the party. The real cats, not the ridiculous costumed ones that were my housemates.
“Okay,” I laughed as I joined them at the table. “Six is just way too many cats. You guys are going to have to do something about this.”
Bailey giggled and picked up Momma cat and placed her on her lap. Between Bailey’s massive furry suit and the fat cat’s white fur, you could hardly tell where one ended and the other began.
Rory reached for little Agnes, who flopped on her back on the table in front of her, demanding attention. Soot hopped up on Jane’s lap and began pawing at her bow tie.
“It’s as if they know,” I said, looking incredulously at the scene in front of me. “These cats never cease to amaze me.”
“They’re smarter than you think,” Rory said as she tickled little Agnes’ belly on the table.
I shook my head, not really believing the ridiculousness of what was going on around me.
“How lovely,” Mrs. Brody said. “A witch, her bitches, and their queens
.”
I stared at her for a second, processing what she had just said, then immediately lost myself in a fit of giggles. Everyone else in the room laughed as well, and some of the tension that had built up in the room dissipated immediately.
Mrs. Brody got up to make some tea, and we all settled down after a few good moments of much needed laugher to get down to business.
“Okay, so what do we know?” I asked, pulling the container with the cookie towards me to inspect it closer.
“Well,” Bailey said. “We know there’s magic in the cookie.”
“Dark magic,” Jane corrected.
“Dark magic,” Bailey repeated. “And we know Trey ate part of the cookie, then died.”
We all sat in silence for a moment, the recollection of what had happened loomed over our heads like dark clouds.
I shook my head, trying my best to clear my mind so I could think. “But why? Is there any way this could have been an accident?”
“Could have just been a coincidence,” Rory said. “Maybe the cookie wasn’t meant for him? Or maybe, just maybe, it was a spell gone wrong.” She eyed Mrs. Brody.
“Maybe the person who spelled the cookie meant for it to do something else,” Jane said, following Bailey’s train of thought.
Mrs. Brody joined us at the table with a tray of teacups and a pot of steaming chai tea. “I highly doubt that.” She pulled the container towards her, and bent close to examine the cookie. “I haven’t seen magic like this in a long time. Whoever conjured the spell must have been very powerful. This was deliberate, there’s no doubt about that.
I sighed. “Okay, so we’ve established that. What we really need to find out now was whether it was actually intended for Trey, and who was the one who cast the spell?”
Bailey shook her head. “I didn’t sense any powerful magic at the party. Nothing apart from the typical buzz you get from people who have diluted magic in them from family heritage. If there was another powerful witch here, we would have sensed it.”
“You’re right,” I said. I then slumped back into my chair and squeezed my eyes shut in concentration. “Then how did it get into Mrs. Pots’ possession? Who brought it here?”
