Rags to Witches

by Colleen Cross

  “Relax. She’s finally enjoying herself for a change, instead of working herself to exhaustion at that stupid inn.”

  “You want our bed and breakfast to fail. That’s the real reason you brought both of us here.” It was no secret that my aunt resented our bed and breakfast business venture back in Westwick Corners. I glanced back at Mom, who stood at the bar where Christophe placed the finishing touches on three fruity-looking drinks.

  Aunt Pearl took one and headed towards French doors that led to the patio.

  Mom grabbed one and downed half of it in one gulp. “This man is a genius. I wish we could hire you to work at our inn.”

  Christophe smiled. “Maybe you can. I’ll be out of a job soon, and I’m tired of Vegas. Tell me about your inn.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing as grand as the Hotel Babylon. The Westwick Corners Inn only has twelve rooms. And it’s located in an almost-ghost town.” Mom giggled as she finished the rest of her drink. “Too dull for a young man like you. I feel silly even mentioning it.”

  Christophe took her glass and headed to the bar for a refill.

  Mom followed close behind.

  I headed out onto the patio and joined Aunt Pearl. The large wraparound penthouse patio was almost as large as the suite itself. It had its own lap pool, a hot tub, and seating arranged to maximize the city view, which probably looked magnificent by night. At this early hour everything was still quiet, like half the city was still asleep.

  I turned to my aunt. “Mom’s right. There’s no way we can afford this place, even at a deep discount.”

  “Relax,” said Aunt Pearl. “This might be the high roller suite, but it doesn’t cost us a penny.”

  I turned to face my aunt. “We’re not high rollers, and we can’t stay here for nothing. What’s the catch?”

  “No catch.” Aunt Pearl winked.

  Mom emerged from the suite, as if on cue. She walked unsteadily past me, spilling her refilled glass on the concrete deck. “Nothing is free, because the hotel expects us to spend thousands of dollars gambling. Even your lottery winnings might not be enough. In fact, it could be a disaster.”

  Mom was alluding to Aunt Pearl’s gambling problem. The lottery winnings were a double-edged sword. I doubted my aunt would steer clear of the slots and tables for long.

  “I didn’t spend a dime on the suite, or anything else. Rocco comped the room for us because he considers us family. Not that I can’t afford this. Besides, I can gamble if I want to. I’m a millionaire and I’ve got money to burn.”

  I flashed back to the wise guy and the lobby gunfight. I didn’t like owing favors to a guy who needed bodyguards. Aunt Pearl had probably misinterpreted his invitation, if there even was one in the first place. I made a mental note to check in at the front desk later on to confirm our room rate.

  Mom pointed an index finger at Pearl. “I still think we should’ve stayed in the RV. You’re on the hook for the bill if anything goes wrong.” She headed towards the deck chairs without waiting for a response.

  Aunt Pearl turned to me and rolled her eyes. “You both need to stop worrying and enjoy yourselves.”

  “How can we? You tricked both of us into coming on your magical mystery tour, and you’re pretty vague about how and when exactly you won the lottery. I’m not relaxing until you tell me what’s really going on.” I almost felt like joining Wilt in the RV. Almost, but not quite.

  “Okay, fine. I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell Ruby.” Aunt Pearl massaged her temples. “It’s kind of complicated. I don’t even know where to start.”

  “How about explaining the lobby shootout for starters?”

  Aunt Pearl’s hand flew to her mouth. “Wasn’t that terrible? I have no idea how that happen—”

  I held up my hand in protest. “I think you know exactly what’s going on, and if you don’t tell me, I’m leaving. I’ll find my own way home.” It seemed that she had planned everything all along, as a lead-in to the overly dramatic confession she was about to give. “I’ll rent a car or something.”

  “How? You forgot your purse and you’ve got no money.”

  “I’ll figure something out.”

  “If you practiced your witchcraft you could conjure one up. Such a waste of talent.” Aunt Pearl shook her head slowly.

  “Quit changing the subject, Aunt Pearl.”

  “Okay, fine.” She sighed. “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything. Starting with the guys downstairs. You know something you’re not telling.” Either she was somehow involved or knew more than she let on.

  Aunt Pearl dabbed an imaginary tear from her eye. “I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but to be honest, it will be a relief to have a confidante. Someone on my side.”

  “I never said anything about being on your side. I just want to know what you’ve gotten us mixed up in.”

  “They’ve already taken Carla, and Tommy before her.” Aunt Pearl sucked in her breath. “They’ll get Rocco too, unless we can stop them. I have a plan.”

  I covered my ears. “We are not stopping anybody. Does Mom know any of this?”

  “There’s some things she’s better off not knowing.”

  “Like?”

  “Family secrets,” Aunt Pearl said. “This one will break Ruby’s heart.”

  Chapter 9

  I gulped my fruity drink. Aunt Pearl’s claim defied belief. I couldn’t recall Mom ever even dating, let alone having a serious relationship. And she had no reason to have kept it a secret from me.

  Dad had disappeared without a trace when I was in grade school. Since then, Mom had immersed herself in cooking, baking, and gardening. She even made wine from our estate vineyard and had turned our ancestral home into a boutique bed and breakfast. She kept herself busy, never mentioning Dad. She never mentioned any dates or a steady boyfriend either.

  Yet Aunt Pearl claimed otherwise. “Ruby was jilted by her lover. He dumped Ruby for Carla Racatelli.”

  “What lover? You’re making all this up.” Mom hadn’t left Westwick Corners since I could remember, and she’d had no suitors that I was aware of. She was too much of a homebody to lead a double life. But my aunt seemed serious. I didn’t think she was lying this time.

  Aunt Pearl slowly shook her head. “I wish I was making it up. If only I could undo everything that’s happened. But I can’t. Let’s go back inside where we can talk without Ruby overhearing.”

  I followed reluctantly, stunned at the possibility of Mom in a secret relationship. I was also a little hurt that she had to keep secrets from me. “Why didn’t Mom tell me about this guy? When did she ever see him?”

  “She’s a witch, Cen. A competent witch has many methods at her disposal to be in more than one place at the same time. If you practiced your spells more often, you would know that.” Aunt Pearl frowned. “Ruby knew you wouldn’t approve of her affair, so she never told you. You’re so straight-laced and moral.”

  “Since when is that a bad thing?” I sat down in an oversized armchair, kitty corner to Aunt Pearl, who perched on the edge of an impossibly long, white leather sofa.

  “I never said it was. But Ruby knew you’d get all judge-y on her.”

  “I am not judge-y.” The thought of Mom having a love life had never even occurred to me. I guess I should have expected her to date eventually, and it had been decades since Dad left. She just never seemed interested in a relationship, and she wasn’t one for secrets. There had to be more to the story. And, apparently, there was.

  “Ruby should be glad to be rid of that bum.” Aunt Pearl leaned back against the arm of the sofa, her skinny legs stretched out in front of her. “Who knows, it could have been her instead.”

  I gulped. “You think he killed Carla? Who is this guy?”

  “Bones Battilana. One of the most powerful mob bosses in America. He wanted to move in on Las Vegas, but all of Nevada is controlled by the Racatellis. Rumor has it that Bones knocked off Tommy a few years back to wrest control from the Racatelli fam
ily. He never expected Carla to take over the reins. She turned out to be better at business than Tommy ever was. So his plan to consolidate power backfired.”

  “Then he romanced Carla instead?” Realization slowly dawned on me. “You’re saying that Mom dated a mobster, and then he dumped her to move in on Carla? That’s crazy.”

  “It kind of looks that way. I just don’t know what to do.” Aunt Pearl threw her hands up in the air, spilling her fruity cocktail all over the sofa. “Now you see why I need your help. I don’t want her to freak out at the funeral when she sees Bones.”

  “I guess you’d better break the news to her soon.” My fruity drink packed a powerful punch. I felt drunk, and I had taken barely more than a few sips. In fact, they seemed to be affecting all of us to the extreme. It seemed a little paranoid, but I was beginning to wonder if they contained something more than alcohol.

  Christophe appeared seconds later with a cloth and a bottle of Club Soda. Within a minute he had expertly blotted away the spilled drink. He beamed proudly, reminding me of a masculine Martha Stewart, just waiting for a chance to show off his many tricks.

  Christophe made a slight bow and turned in the direction of the kitchen. We sat in silence until he was out of earshot.

  “You know, Cen...you have a very good way of dealing with crises.” Aunt Pearl scratched her chin as if considering my talents—or lack thereof—for the very first time. “This is a very delicate matter, and you’re so much better at these things than I am.”

  “No. How am I supposed to tell Mom something I’m not even supposed to know in the first place?”

  “You’ll figure it out.” She scanned the suite to ensure no one was listening. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Bones Battilana is a pretty big deal around here. We have to keep this on the down-low.”

  “I think you’re just making all this up. Mom would never in a million years date a mobster, let alone some guy named ‘Bones’.” Mom dating a guy named after body parts gave me the creeps.

  “Ruby might be your mom, but she’s no different than any other women. She’s been involved with him for almost a decade. We all have needs, Cen. Even I do.”

  This was getting weirder by the minute. It was hard enough imagining Mom with a man, but the idea of grumpy Aunt Pearl having “needs” just seemed at odds with both her personality and lifestyle. She had never married and seemed always to have a hate-on for anyone with a Y chromosome.

  “This guy must have a real name.”

  “Danny. Everything seemed just fine until about three weeks ago. That’s when Bones—I mean Danny—told Ruby he had to go on a month-long business trip to Asia. She hasn’t seen him since. She thinks everything between them is just fine. In reality, he just dumped her for Carla, but didn’t have the guts to tell her to her face.”

  “And now Carla’s dead. Talk about bad timing.”

  “Or maybe good timing. I’m almost positive Bones killed Carla,” Aunt Pearl said. “That’s why I’ve assigned you to Project Vegas Vendetta. We need to investigate Carla’s murder and avenge her death. Oh...and your first task is to tell Ruby what her no-good boyfriend’s been up to.”

  At least Mom’s ex-boyfriend was an “ex”, but the thought that he might be Carla’s suspected killer made my hair stand up. I knew next to nothing about Carla’s death, but there just had to be another explanation. I jumped as the French doors swung open and Mom returned inside. “We’re doing no such thing!”

  “Huh?” Mom grinned at us from the doorway. She swayed on her feet as she raised her empty glass and toasted us. She rarely drank, and I had never even seen her drunk before. Today seemed to be a first for a lot of things, none of them good.

  “It’ll be so much better coming from you than me. You know I’ll screw things up.” Aunt Pearl shifted on the sofa and brought her knees up to her chest. She fake-smiled at me. “Please?”

  Aunt Pearl never took no for an answer, and there would be definite consequences for me unless I agreed to her plan. I felt like I was backed into a corner. “You never said Carla was murdered. Does Mom know that part?”

  Mom twirled her cocktail glass and walked unsteadily past us towards the kitchen in search of Christophe and his magical elixir.

  Aunt Pearl waited until she had left the room. “Yes.”

  “You should have told me all this a long time ago.”

  “What can I say? Ruby’s relationship was her secret, and she swore me to secrecy.” Aunt Pearl raised her hands, palms outward. Her bottom lip trembled. “I know, Cen. Bad decision on my part. But it’s a little late to fix that now. You know how bad I am at this stuff. I’ll botch it and make Ruby even more upset. She has no clue about his affair. She’ll be heartbroken. She thought Bones was about to propose to her.”

  “Danny.”

  Aunt Pearl rolled her eyes. “Okay. Danny.”

  Another bombshell. “The shootout in the lobby...was that part of Battilana’s business trip?”

  Aunt Pearl nodded. “Rocco’s men were defending him against another Bones Battilana hit. We’ve got to get to them before they get to Rocco. That’s why you have to tell Ruby about his illicit affair with Carla. We can’t risk her going near him while he’s so dangerous and unpredictable.”

  “The police haven’t arrested him yet?”

  Aunt Pearl shook her head. “He’s playing the grieving husband, and the police are going along with it. The husband’s always the number one suspect, though. In the meantime, he carries on as usual, trying to gain control of Carla’s holdings. That’s why he married her in the first place. He couldn’t wrest control of Las Vegas from the Racatellis, so he joined them instead. Now he’s in on the action.”

  “Whoa—Bones is married to Carla now?” My head spun from everything Aunt Pearl had just said. “How much do I tell Mom?”

  “All of it. With Carla gone, Ruby might try to reconcile with him. That would be a grave mistake. While you’re doing that, I’ll get us some more stiff drinks.” Aunt Pearl sprung off the couch and went in search of our butler. “Christophe? Yoo-hoo!”

  I jumped up after her. “Wait—you need to fill the police in on what you know before they come asking. Maybe they can protect Mom.” My head spun with my aunt’s claims. My missed interview seemed inconsequential now.

  “No can do, Cen. We trust no one. Not even the police.”

  Chapter 10

  I stepped out of the elevator, still dazed from Aunt Pearl’s confession. I also felt the effects of Christophe’s powerful cocktails. I had lost count of how many I had, though I hadn’t intended to drink a single one. As for Aunt Pearl, I was unsure whether to be scared or angry. I felt a little of both.

  I headed across the lobby towards the casino. It wasn’t exactly hard to find with all the flashing lights, bells, and hordes of overweight, middle-aged tourists. Most wore Las Vegas t-shirts and shorts. The contrast between the casual dress and opulent decor jarred my senses.

  Of course, casinos turned away no one. Especially not people with money in their pockets, no matter how poorly dressed. And from what I could see, business was booming.

  I refocused on my mission: finding a phone to call Tyler to apologize for our missed date. I considered a flight home, but without money and credit cards, that was impossible. At any rate, Aunt Pearl would thwart my efforts. She wanted me at the funeral at any cost and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  I couldn’t locate a lobby phone, and the only hotel equipment with a ring tone were the slot machines. The whole atmosphere jarred my already confused senses. There were no windows or clocks. Without a watch, it was impossible to tell the time of day. Anything that distracted gamblers was considered a no-no.

  I headed through the lobby and exited the revolving glass doors onto the street. The sky was slightly overcast, but it had no impact on the heat that already assaulted my air-conditioned skin. I guessed that it was probably still late morning, though I had lost all sense of time.

  I stood a few feet to the sid
e of the entrance and took a few moments to get my bearings. I headed towards what looked like a shopping district, hoping to find a mall or a store where I could buy a cheap throwaway cell phone.

  Tyler must be wondering why I hadn’t called him after missing our date last night. I had probably blown any chance I ever had with him.

  First I would call Tyler, and then I would find a way to get back home. The easiest and fastest mode of travel involved magical intervention, but my magic skills weren’t good enough to muster anything close to teleportation. I seriously doubted that either Mom or Aunt Pearl would help me. At the very least, they would point out my lapsed magic lessons and claim that it served me right.

  I debated how much to tell Tyler. I wanted him to understand that I hadn’t just casually canceled our date. Except my kidnapping story sounded simply unbelievable. Telling the truth would only worsen his already bad impression of Aunt Pearl.

  Two blocks later I saw no sign of retail stores or anywhere else to buy a cell phone. The only businesses on the strip seemed to be other casinos. My lack of familiarity with Las Vegas meant it could take me a long time to find a phone.

  I stood on the corner, uncertain and frustrated on what to do next. Then it dawned on me that I had other options. While my witchcraft talents weren’t adequate to transport myself back to Westwick Corners, I knew basic spellcasting and had conjured up inanimate objects before. Never a cell phone, but it was probably within my abilities. I wished I had at least practiced, so my skills wouldn’t be so rusty.

  Instead, I had squandered the very advantage that could have gotten me out of my current situation. While I could blame Aunt Pearl for kidnapping me, the mess I was in was really my fault in the end.

  I had only recently decided that my natural talents weren’t cheating at all. In fact, they weren’t talents, since every spell took hours to learn, and a significant amount of practice to keep up my knowledge. I got out of it what I put in. Nothing more, and nothing less.

  This epiphany came to me when I made a bet with Aunt Pearl—and lost. Losing the bet had committed me to all seventy-two lessons in her Pearls of Wisdom course at Pearl’s Charm School. The curriculum encompassed everything one needed to become a successful witch. Unfortunately, I had only progressed to lesson three. That meant I was pretty good at getting rid of things, but less successful at conjuring things up.