spies and spells 02 - betting off dead

by Kappes, Tonya

  “I mean, you do have the perfect view of our porch if you sit here all day.” I got up since my welcome was no longer. “So, did you see anyone who might’ve taken it?”

  Suddenly she became wide awake.

  “You know, I might’ve seen someone, but I’m not sure.” She thought about it for a second. “Let me think on it and I’ll get back to you.”

  I could sense she was lying and trying to come up with something good, but her old mind wasn’t letting her.

  “Like someone off the street?” I asked, baiting her.

  “Yeah, yeah. You know there are always tourists around here snooping.” She fingered her pearls. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  “Thanks for the tea,” I waved. “Even though you didn’t let me finish it,” I mumbled on my way out of the door.

  I didn’t look back as I made it across the green to my house because I was sure she was looking out that window. Auntie Meme was right. Mrs. Hubbard watched everything we did. No wonder she saw Sherry levitating in the family room last night. Not only did we have to watch our magic at The Brew, now I knew we had to watch it in the privacy of our own home.

  “You traitor!” Auntie Meme flung a finger toward me. I ducked just in time as a glass of magic water flew past me and spilled all over the door.

  “I did no such thing.” I ducked again when she tried to fling more water on me. “Stop it! I went over there to see if I could find your package.” My face nearly missed the flying, slimy frog she pulled out of the air.

  “You did?” She curled her arms around her body as the cape flung out from behind her. “And?” She turned to go back down the hall and into the kitchen where she was coming up with the next day’s specials for The Brew.

  “Nothing.” I sat down at the kitchen table and drummed my fingers. “It was the strangest thing. She has nothing in her house. I mean no pictures, not much furniture, but she has the best kitchen. You’d love it.”

  “I don’t think so,” Auntie Meme grabbed the bottle of Cassie off of the forbidden herb shelf that no one was allowed to use but her. She took the lid off and didn’t use the usual dash; she used a couple tablespoons. My mind reeled with what on Earth she could possibly be making for tomorrow’s special since Cassie was mainly used in the sexuality department.

  Thank goodness I wasn’t going to be there to find out since I had to go shopping for the perfect cocktail dress, which reminded me to ask Lilith as she walked in.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. Gilbert flew in and landed on her shoulder. Lilith brushed back her bangs and kissed Gilbert’s little beak.

  “We were just talking about that thief across the way.” Auntie Meme stirred the pot and turned on the oven. She was making some sort of special dessert.

  This usually took place every night while they watched the evening news, but tonight was special so she must’ve been doing it early. She and Mom made potions for their “special” which covered the entire Louisville metro area. Their potions made people happier, worry less, take more time with their family because they said the news was filled with terrible things.

  Once people came to eat at The Brew, they got a good fix of happy in some awesome homemade food and left feeling good and wanting to do good in the community. Auntie Meme was determined to make the world a happy place one stomach at a time.

  Most of our customers were repeats and brought people with them. The Brew was getting to be well known around town and our wait line was also getting longer. Auntie Meme felt like her movement was working. Who was I to question what she put in her cakes?

  “Maggie decided to go over and make friends with her.” I silently fumed as Auntie Meme kept talking. If she could only understand that it was for her. “Maggie claims that old, rich Mrs. Hubbard lives a pretty frugal life and didn’t see my package.”

  Lilith looked at me with a wry grin on her face. I rolled my eyes.

  “But she did invite me in and made the most delicious little cakes I’ve ever tasted.” I completely lost my marbles and let my mouth take over, forgetting I was talking about good food and Mrs. Hubbard in the same sentence, both things Auntie Meme took seriously.

  The pot on the stove exploded and the contents smacked the ceiling and dripped down over me. Gilbert flapped his wings and flew off. Riule barely lifted his head from his big pillow next to the door—his usual spot where he waited patiently for Mom to get home from wherever it was she had gone.

  Lilith cocked her body sideways in the chair, giggling. Her eyes had a glint telling me that I’d screwed up now.

  “Thanks.” I shook my head, letting whatever it was shake off me like a dog after a bath.

  Auntie Meme cursed the air, cleaning up the entire room and myself in a single curse word.

  “I’m sorry.” I jumped up and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and decided to leave her alone while I was still alive. “Listen,” I turned my attention to Lilith, “I have to go to this fancy cocktail party tomorrow night and I was wondering if you could go with me in the morning to find a dress?”

  “Why not,” she snapped her hand in the air and changed her clothes into a cute little red dress with a Peter Pan collar. She ran her lean hand over the collar. “These are very popular now.”

  “I’d like something that I can get at a store so when someone asks, I can say the store name, not I made it.” Which was my general response to all the cute outfits I snapped on myself.

  “Sure.” Lilith shrugged. “Can you come by the office around ten and get me? I have a meeting with Tessa first thing in the morning.”

  “Sounds good.” I noticed how Auntie had tuned us out and started all over on her daily special. “Auntie, where is Mom?” I asked.

  “She had to go to the cellar.” She meant that Mom had to get more herbs from the coven room in the basement. Anytime we needed special ingredients we were out of, the coven room in the basement was where she used the cauldron to connect to that world. “I wish she’d hurry too because I need that last ingredient.”

  “Tell me about your day.” Lilith’s eyes were filled with a curious deep longing. “And how it went with Mr. Hunky Spy.” She wiggled her brows up and down and did a little shimmy shake of her shoulders in an oh-la-la way.

  “Ouch!” Auntie Meme jerked her hand back. It was no surprise she lost all of her caution when Mick’s name was brought up. Her apparent distaste was becoming increasingly unavoidable.

  “Did you just burn yourself?” Lilith rose to her feet and swept across the room to check on Auntie Meme. She held Auntie’s hand in hers.

  “Only because you brought up Mick.” I stood up and sighed, signaling my time to get out of there before Auntie Meme blew up the entire house.

  “I’m telling you that he’s not your life’s journey and he only puts you in danger,” Auntie Meme hollered at my back as I was walking out. “I can feel it from my warty toes to my witch’s nose! He’s got you in danger!”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Danger she says.” I threw my hands up in the air and took the first step on the first flight of stairs. My room was on the third floor and I just didn’t have the energy to walk up. I planted my finger on the side of my nose and with a quick nod, I was in my room. “Of course he has danger around him when I’m with him. I’m only with him when I’m undercover.” I slammed the door behind me.

  My cell phone chirped from my pocket. When I pulled it out and saw Mick’s name scroll across I smiled. It wasn’t as if he and I were going to be a real couple like the one we were pretending to be. But I was a young woman and there was nothing wrong with looking.

  “I know.” I answered the phone. “Don’t be late.”

  “Actually, I was calling to tell you that the Tuckers cancelled dinner.” There was disappointment in his voice.

  “Do you know why?” At least I wasn’t going to have to pull a fast one on Mom so I could be in two places at once.

  The door to my bedroom opened and the pads of little paws trotted across my
room. Riule jumped on my bed. No doubt he was sent there as another pair of ears from Mom.

  “I’ve got my suspicions that I don’t want to discuss over the phone. Would you still like to come over and go to dinner?” he asked.

  I paused, wondering if he was asking to work on the investigation or as a date.

  Riule swiped a paw at me. I stared into his green eyes. The specks of gold glittered as the evening sun drifted through the window. His ears perked.

  “I’m going to pass on dinner, but if drinks are still on, I’d love to have one of those special cocktails you talked about earlier.” I winked at Riule knowing he was going to run and tattle.

  He darted out the door and didn’t bother shutting the door behind him. I walked over to the window and looked out. Mrs. Hubbard and King looked like they were already heading to the meeting.

  Even though I couldn’t meet him for dinner later and go to the meeting for Mom, I had a sneaky suspicion they would have sent Abram to the restaurant like they’d done before. This way, they knew I was going to be with him, regardless of how innocent it was. Little did they know it was all about business.

  “Yeah. Sure. Let’s say around eight pm.” We agreed on the time and I was sure the six-thirty meeting would be over by then since I could guarantee the meeting was all about Mom and her bushes.

  “That sounds good. I’ll see you then.” I hung up and turned back around. Mom was standing in the door. I slipped the phone back in my pocket.

  “Did you use magic to get up those stairs, young lady?” Mom had gotten what I liked to call all mortaled up.

  Her hair was neatly combed to the side and pulled into a long, low ponytail. She had on a pair of khaki pants and a cable knit sweater that would help keep the nip of the fall air off of her.

  “Mom, Auntie Meme is getting ridiculous. I’m a woman. We all know that my life’s journey is to help out SKUL. It’s not a life I chose, but the life that chose me.” I walked over to my closet and opened the door. Empty, like it’d always been.

  I snapped my fingers and decided on a pair of dark skinny jeans tucked into a pair of black, tall, wedged boots and a hot pink sweater that fit my form. I let my hair hang down and put on minimal makeup.

  Mom stood at the door for the first time without saying anything. She was actually listening to me.

  “She refuses to understand any of it.” I pulled the pendant from underneath the sweater and laid it on top. “And I always wear my necklace.”

  Mom swept across the room and picked up the brush on my dresser. She stood behind me. Both of us stared at the other in the mirror. It was like she transformed me back into the little girl who would stand in the exact same place every night after witch school and she’d brush my hair one hundred times. When she couldn’t do it, she had the magic brush do it.

  She began to run the brush down my hair.

  “You will always be our little Maggie. The Maggie who is always in trouble. The Maggie who we had to listen to every word she said because she had a slip of the tongue. The Maggie who saved the neighbor cat more than the nine lives he was already generously given. The Maggie who had gotten a car as a familiar that we had to accept. The Maggie who still plays games with her sister and thinks most mortal men are hot.” Mom simply continued to brush.

  She was right. I wasn’t the typical witch.

  “I know I was a handful, but this is what they, the coven, had planned for me. I’m a grown woman and it is time for me to either melt or fly.” It was a saying among witches about when a child left the comforts of her coven. You either melted or made it. “Y’all are going to have to let me spread my wings and trust I know what I’m doing.”

  “We do trust you in these situations. It’s the mortal man that we can’t trust.” Mom didn’t look at me when she talked about Mick.

  “Mom, he’s been nothing but protective. Vinnie is so jealous that he gets steam under his engine every time Mick is in the car.” I continued to look at her to see if she was going to look back.

  “It’s not him. It’s you.” She reached around with her hand. Her dark eyes drew up to mine. A chill slid along my neck and down my spine. “In here.” She tapped my chest right above the cavity where my heart beat. “The mortal man might be a nice man. And certainly a good-looking one, but he doesn’t know you. You know everything about him and you know your heart. You might seem to think he knows you, but he doesn’t. He knows the Maggie that he works with. The Maggie who loves her family so much that she put her life on hold to work at the family diner for her much older auntie. The Maggie that has a cool, crazy car and who has a heart of gold and would love to help out SKUL in any way she can.” Her tone turned chilly and stone cold, “But what happens when he finds out about the Maggie who is a witch? That uses white magic and can never leave her heritage behind? Then what?”

  “I don’t plan on him ever finding out.” My mom’s words hurt me more than I let her believe.

  “I don’t know, Maggie. Sometimes our hearts do things that we don’t plan on doing. That is where your auntie and I are concerned.” Mom put the brush down and slid back to the door. “We will be downstairs waiting in the foyer for you. I’d like all of us to go the meeting together.”

  I bit back the tears as Mom’s words infiltrated my brain and my heart. Why was I getting so upset? Mick didn’t want me. He only got in touch with me a couple of days ago because Burt had sent him. No matter how much he stroked my ego and told me how he wanted me to be safe and was glad I was on the case, it was still work. Nothing personal. I knew that and had to keep saying it to myself.

  I got myself together and almost took the easy way down the stairs with a little nod, but quickly decided against it. I took the steps like Mom wanted me to. True to her word, she along with Auntie Meme and Lilith were waiting by the door, each had on their shawl. Mom handed me mine. On inside right of the shawl, the family coven crest, the three stars, were embroidered.

  First in line was Auntie, next was Mom, after her Lilith and then me. Miss Kitty was perched on Auntie’s shoulder. Riule was sitting next to Mom’s feet. Gilbert was standing on Lilith’s forearm. The two faint toots from behind us that were muted from outside, was Vinnie letting me know that he hadn’t forsaken me.

  Auntie Meme held her arm in the air with her two fingers together. Each of us followed. We brought our hands across our chests and right over the three stars, we tapped once for each word spoken.

  “Coven, family, thyself,” our voices came together in a harmonious way that was music to our ears. The familiars disbursed and the front door flew open. I curled the shawl around me as the night breeze whipped in and around my feet, swirling up to my head.

  Something told me that I was in for a long night.

  Chapter Twelve

  The meeting had the usual suspects with Susie, Shay and Mrs. Hubbard up front and center. They made up the executives of the Belgravia Court Historical Society with the rest of the residents on Belgravia Court as voting members.

  “As the president of the Society, I regret to inform you that the necessary paperwork was not filed in order for you to plant the several bushes along the sidewalk leading up to your house.” Susie had called Mom to the front of the meeting and decided not to even let Mom speak.

  Lilith and I stole a glance between us and sighed deeply.

  “I’m going to have to ask you to look again.” Mom pointed to the file Susie had in front of her before a slight breeze slid the file in front of Mrs. Hubbard. It was so subtle that the sudden change in the slight breeze was all that alerted me to the little bit of magic Mom had performed.

  Susie didn’t argue. There was a smug look on her face as she glanced up and shook her head. Her lips thinned and she shrugged.

  “Could it have possibly been misplaced?” Mom asked.

  “This is the second time today this family has accused me of something impossible.” Mrs. Hubbard smacked her hand on the table where they were sitting. She hit it so hard, it echoed int
o the night air.

  “Calm down, Gladys.” Shay put a hand on Mrs. Hubbard. She looked between our family and Mrs. Hubbard. Glaring at us, but giving Mrs. Hubbard a sympathetic eye.

  “I’m sorry if you feel like we are accusing you of anything.” Mom spoke in a reasonable tone and kept her cool. “I’m just saying that I know I did the necessary paperwork and I even got a response.” Mom turned around. “Maggie, the paper.” She wigged her fingers at me. “In your clutch.”

  “Yes.” I opened my clutch and pulled out a folded piece of paper that Mom had just put in there. I stood up and walked it over to her. She took it up to Susie, who handed it to Shay. Shay pushed her cat-eye glasses up on her nose.

  “I. . .” Shay stumbled. “I don’t recall signing this, but it is my signature.”

  “I’m telling you, the Parks have strange things going on over on their side of the court.” Mrs. Hubbard stood up. Her eyes glazed the crowd. She flattened out her hand in front of her. “I saw a woman with blond hair floating in their family room last night.”

  “Coo, coo,” Auntie Meme whistled and circled her finger around her ear. There were a few laughs from the others behind us.

  Lilith and I bit our lips.

  “Gladys, please look through the other files and see if it was misplaced,” Susie asked Mrs. Hubbard.

  Mrs. Hubbard spit and cursed under her breath before she gave in and sat back down. The first file she opened, Mom’s application magically appeared.

  “I have no idea how that got in there.” Mrs. Hubbard glared. “I know. They did it somehow.”

  “Oh yeah.” Auntie taunted and wiggled all ten of her fingers in front of her. “We did magic. Ooooooo. . .” Auntie’s mouth formed an O.

  “Enough you two,” Susie warned. “We have been neighbors for a long time. I don’t know what’s happened between the two of you, both accusing each other of some absurd activity.