“Tabitha, are you in there?”
I heard Sheriff Tucker’s voice through a bullhorn from outside. The Lightner Museum was just a block away from my shop, so it wouldn’t have taken him long to get here.
“All we want to do is talk to you. Come out slowly with your hands up.” He said.
“How does he know you’re here?” Haley said.
Where else would I go? The whole town knows I live upstairs from my shop.”
“Oh yeah, that’s true.” She said. “What are we gonna do?”
“I don’t know. I can’t exactly explain how I disappeared to a room full of guests right in front of their eyes.”
“About that. Why did you disappear?” Haley asked.
“I was feeling trapped and got nervous. I kind of didn’t even mean to do it.” That was the truth. It was a reaction caused from feeling the steel of the metal handcuffs.
“Oh boy.” Haley said pacing back and forth. “This is really bad, Tabatha.”
The sheriff’s voice rang out through the bull horn. “I’m giving you five seconds and then I’m coming in after you.” Sheriff Tucker’s voice was deeper and more forceful than when he previously spoke into the bullhorn.
“It looks like he’s serious.” I said.
“Of course he’s serious. He has the entire St. Johns County police force outside waiting for you. What are you going to do?” I heard the fear in Haley’s voice.
I thought about it for a minute, went over to the front door, opened it slightly, and motioned for Sheriff Tucker to come inside. The only thing I could do was talk to him and see if maybe he would understand and have the slight chance of believing me.
He walked in, watching me hesitantly. He still had a remnant of shock on his face.
“Well, this has been a mighty interesting Christmas party this year, don’t you think?”
I appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood, but I knew he was probably scared of me. “Sheriff Tucker, I’m sorry but I didn’t kill Mayor Schmidt.”
“Nobody said you did. Just trying to get to the bottom of it. My first question is how did I see what I thought I saw earlier?”
“See what?” I asked, trying to play coy and avoid the conversation.
Sheriff Tucker’s expression told me that he wasn’t going to let me get away with that. “I couldn’t have imagined it because there were ten other people who saw the same thing. What’s going on?”
I thought about whether or not to tell him the truth. Would he be the kind of man who could handle it? Or would he call me a nut and have me thrown into a mental institution? I wasn’t sure he was a good man. I knew that he was a good law enforcement officer, but there was only so much that these mortals could take before they were willing to compromise their safe reality of the world they lived in.
“What can you tell me?” He asked.
“All I know is that the way the mayor’s skin turned green was something I saw a long time ago.”
“Okay, why don’t you tell me more about that down at the station?”
“Sheriff Tucker, I want to help in any way I can. But you know as well as I do if I go down to that station, you’re gonna try to put me behind bars and I can’t do that. I’m happy to talk to you about what I believe happened, but let’s talk here.” I watched his face to see if I could read his expression. I was sure he wasn’t used to being spoken to the way I did.
Sheriff Tucker looked at me sternly. “Now look little lady, there’s not a whole lot that you can do about it. You got the town scared to death that you’re putting some kind of crazy curse on them and with the mayor having just died, you’re a suspect considering he ate one of your candy canning seconds before biting the bullet. Now you’re coming with me one way or another.”
I turned around avoiding his gaze. I knew this wasn’t going in the direction I had hoped. I wanted very much to avoid what I was about to do next but there just wasn’t any way around it. I turned back around and faced him. My hands pointed toward him as I chanted a spell. He froze instantly.
“What did you do, Tabatha?” Haley yelled.
“I put him in a state of suspended animation.” I said. “That should keep him for a while.”
“This is awful! Now what are we supposed to do?” Haley’s eyes glistened.
“Well, I didn’t know what else to do.”
“We can’t just have the Sheriff standing in the middle of the shop completely frozen and the S.W.A.T. team just feet away on the other side of the door!” Haley went over to take a closer look at the Sheriff. She touched his hat. It was frozen solid.
“What about all those other law enforcement officers outside?” Haley said. “You know they’re waiting for Sheriff Tucker to come back. Are you going to freeze the entire town too?”
“Just let me think for a minute,” I said. “I’m not sure what to do, but I know that I have to stay free so that I can find out who the real killer is. Quick, grab his feet and help me carry him into the back room.”
Haley did as I asked and between the two of us, we shuffled Sheriff Tucker’s body to the back room and into the supply closet.
“We can put the Sheriff in the closet.” Haley said.
“It’s just be for a little while. When he comes out of it, he won’t remember anything.”
I knew she didn’t want to, but Haley reluctantly went along with me. She thought I was crazy for some of the things that I did, but she was the most loyal friend I had and I knew that she knew she could trust me.
“Well this certainly was the most interesting Christmas party have ever been to.” I said.
Don’t Break My Candy Cane Heart
Haley helps me make these around Valentine’s Day and Christmas, but you can make these for any special occasion. It’s fun to wrap them up and serve them as a bouquet to a special someone who needs that pop of magic in their lives!
Ingredients
4" or 6" lollipop sticks
Mini candy canes
White chocolate
Christmas sprinkles
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and lay the lollipop sticks on the paper. Place two mini candy canes facing each other and lay them at the top of a lollipop stick. Put them in the oven for about three minutes and then take them out. They should be pliable enough to stretch the top and bottom to form a more complete heart. Pour a couple teaspoons of melted chocolate into the center followed by sprinkles. Let it cool for about ten minutes before serving.
Coconut Dream Bites
Ingredients
24 ounces chocolate (melted)
2 cups powdered sugar
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
24 ounces shredded coconut (divided)
Grease a 9 x 13 pan and set to the side. Stir in the coconut, powdered sugar and condensed milk together. Pour it into the greased pan and put in the refrigerator until it is firm enough to cut. Estimated time is about an hour.
Slice into squares and dip into melted chocolate. Put the dipped bites onto wax paper to let cool but not before sprinkling with the rest of the coconut. A little abracadabra and voila! There you have it!
Chapter 3
I rushed to the front of the store and unlock the door until I could figure out what was going on. The deputies outside probably thought Sheriff Tucker was talking to me, which was probably why they were waiting patiently instead of storming through.
“Now what?” Haley asked.
“Now we figure out what’s going on. There’s something so weird about Mayor Schmidt’s condition. The way his skin turned green after he died. It reminded me of something that happened a couple hundred years ago when the settlers came over.”
“What are you talking about, Tabitha?” Haley asked. She put her hands to her mouth still freaking out about the fact that Sheriff Tucker was frozen solid in the closet.
“During the plague in Europe. When I came over here. There were a couple of townspeople who had the exact same
symptoms. When they died, their skin, shriveled up in wrinkles and turn green, just like Mayor Schmidt. The town blamed it on a play, but I had my suspicions.”
“So do you think there’s a plague in the modern world we live in now?” Haley asked.
“No, I think this is specific to Mayor Schmidt.”
“What exactly did you put in the candy canes?” Haley asked.
“Nothing more than I usually do.” I said.
“Yeah, big you know that you had something extra in the way of magic.” She said.
I usually sprinkle my foods with magic. But only if a batch goes wrong and it’s not coming out quite like I wanted it to, I use magic to help me. But mostly I tried to do everything from scratch on my own. It’s been kind of a competition for myself to see how good I can make things without using a cheat like magic.
“No. I made everything original and hand made from scratch. It wasn’t the candy canes that poison Mayor Schmidt.”
“Then how do we explain his death? Did they take a piece of the candy cane to analyze it? Because if there’s anything they don’t recognize or if there’s poison you’re going up the Creek.” Haley said.
“Very funny Haley.” I shot back at her.
The truth was that I was hoping this was all a dream. I thought that I was finally making friends in this town and having people warm up to me. It was my greatest hope that they would stop creating rumors about me and get to know who I was.
I started talking Haley again when I noticed something appearing in from the back door. It was my nosy neighbor Eleanor Krinsky. She was always out and about looking in people’s windows. She and Lydia were best friends, of course.
She knocked lightly and waved trying to get our attention. I walked to the back and open the door. “Hi, Mrs. Krinsky. How can I help you?”
“What in the blazes is going on over here? I see all the lights and the police. Did you burn something Tabatha?”
“No, ma’am, I sure did it.”
“Oh well, that’s good. Do you have any of those peppermint bark candies left? My Freddie just loves them.”
Haley and I looked at her like she lost her mind. Amidst an all-out standoff with the SWAT team and she just flounces of the back door expecting me to wait on her. But that’s how she was and I really shouldn’t be surprised.
“We’re closed now, Mrs. Krinsky. I hope that you’ll come back when were open.”
She gave me a look of indignation, as if how dare I asked her to leave.
“We hope you’ll come back tomorrow.” Haley said.
“Well, I had better get my early bird discount.”
“Absolutely will see you tomorrow.” Haley smiled.
She looks both of us up and down before turning on her heels and leaving. I shut the door behind her and let out a deep sigh.
I close the door and shook my head in the midst of Armageddon. This woman would line up to get her early bird special.
Haley stuck her finger in my face. “Don’t open that door again for anybody. We are in the middle of a standoff.” She pointed to the front window and I saw that the officers were still there.
“We need to focus,” she said. “Go get your spell books.”
I left her and went upstairs into my apartment where I kept my spell books. I plucked it from the bookshelf and opened it, flipping through the pages. Haley followed behind me and shut the door.
“What are we looking for exactly?” Haley asked.
“I don’t quite know, but I think I will know it when I see it.” I said.
I flipped through moistening the tip of my finger to help me turn the pages faster until I stopped exactly on it.
“Here it is.” I said. “I remember where I saw this before.”
“Where?” Haley asked.
“It was here in this town a couple hundred years ago. One of the indigenous tribal leaders offered up a spell in exchange for materials from the colonists.”
“But why would he offer a spell of death?” Hayley looked confused.
“Because the colonists were fighting pirates at the time. The city had been raized a couple of times and they were looking for a way to protect themselves.” I explained.
“Did it work? Did they drive out the pirates?” She asked.
“Sort of. The leader of the colony used the spell to drive out the pirates, but he also used it against the very same tribe who gave him the spell. He wiped them out and made it look like it was a plague so that the colony would absorb the lands and the crops after they were shown by the tribe how to farm.”
“That’s so sad.” Haley said. “What happened to the colonists?”
“A band of Spanish outlaws infiltrated the town and slaughtered most of the men before taking the women and children as slaves.” I said.
“Were you around here during that time?” Haley watched my expression carefully.
“No, I heard about the stories from my coven. It was a particularly dark time. So much so, that we decided to hide the spell and forbid anyone from using it again.” I said.
“And no one has?” Haley asked.
“No. Not until tonight.”
“So how could they have gotten hold of the spell?” Haley asked. “Do you think they snuck in here and grabbed it?”
“I don’t see how.” I wasn’t sure of exactly what was going on. It was all so strange but the weirdest part was the question of motive. Why would someone want to kill Mayor Schmidt?
“This is really bad.” Haley paced around the room.
“I know.” I said.
“No, I mean whomever has this spell has to know who you are. Maybe they’re from an earlier time like you.”
“You mean another witch?” I asked.
It made sense. That was the only thing I could come up with as well.
“Yeah, and they’re definitely not practicing white magic.” Haley started biting her fingernails.
I closed the book and as soon as I did, my lights went out and a strong hurricane force wind began to blow about my apartment knocking us both down to the floor.
“I can’t get up!” Haley yelled as she fought the force of the wind.
“Me neither!” I said.
I waved my hands and cast a spell to counter the strong wind. The wind was focused and directed. It opened my spell book that was sitting on the table and tore out the page that had the spell on it. Then it carried it off through the window. The lights came back on and I realized that Haley was passed out on the floor.
Peppermint Cookie Dough Holiday Bars
Your guests will believe they’ve had a spell cast on them when they taste one of these magical treats! They’re a favorite at my sweet shop and maybe they will become a favorite of yours, too!
Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
1 C Unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
1 C Granulated sugar
¾ C Light brown sugar
2¼ C All-purpose flour
½ tsp Salt
3 tbsp. Milk
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 C Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips
½ C Mini chocolate chips
For the truffle:
1 pkg (28 pcs) Andes Peppermint Crunch chocolate, chopped
3 tbsp. Heavy Cream
Let’s start with making the cookie dough. You want to get a medium-sized bowl and mix butter and both sugars. A handheld mixer works best and you want to mix it until there are no more chunks. Then add your flour and salt. Mix well until all the ingredients are combined. The consistency will be crumbly.
Next, add vanilla extract and milk. Mix again until it becomes a soft dough. Now take your Andes mints and chop them up into smaller pieces. Add them and mini chocolate chips into the mixture and mix.
You should have an 8”x8” pan lined with parchment paper ready to go. The parchment paper should extend beyond the top edge. Pour the cookie dough mixture into the pan and press it down with your fingers until it’s even.
Now for the truffle mixture.
Get a microwave safe bowl and add the rest of the chopped Andes mints and heavy cream. Put it in the microwave for thirty seconds at a time. Make sure to stir it each time until it is completely melted. Take it out of the microwave and whisk it until the chocolate is melted completely, then let it sit for about 15 minutes.
Use the melted chocolate and pour it over the cookie dough. Put it in the refrigerator until it is firm. When ready, take it out and put it on the counter so it can sit. Wait ten minutes before cutting into it.
Easy Peasy Microwaveable Caramels
Ingredients
1 cup butter
2½ cups packed brown sugar
1 cup light karo corn syrup
1 – 14 ounce can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
Take a 9” x 13” pan and grease it. Set it aside. Melt butter in a microwaveable bowl. Then add the remaining ingredients except the vanilla. You will want to mix it well. Put the bowl in the microwave for four to five minutes. Take it out of the microwave and stir it. A whisk works well. Then put it back in the microwave for another four or five minutes. Remove it again and stir. This time add the vanilla.
Witch Way to Candy Cane Murder (Holiday Helpings Book 1) Page 2
