Daley Buzz Cozy Mystery Boxed Set

by Meredith Potts

  “I don’t blame anyone,” I said. “It’s just time to get back to work.”

  Delilah held her hand up. “Wait. Sabrina. Before you go, there’s something I need to say to you.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I think it is imperative that you stop by my shop later,” Delilah said.

  Uh-oh. I had a feeling that a New Age sales pitch was about to come my way.

  I gave her a polite smile. “Sorry. But I have plans today.”

  “Fair enough. But definitely come in tomorrow then,” Delilah said.

  “I’m working tomorrow,” I said.

  “Not all day, though, right? Surely you have half an hour to spare at some point,” Delilah said.

  I bit my lip.

  Kelly looked at me with pleading eyes. “Sabrina, please make time for this.”

  “You should listen to your friend,” Delilah said.

  “If it’ll help, I can cover for you here at Daley Buzz so you can stop in at the crystal shop,” Kelly said.

  “It’s settled, then,” Delilah said. “Please stop by my place as soon as you can.”

  I held my hand out. “Wait. I’m confused. What’s the big deal with me going to the crystal shop, anyway?”

  “Kelly told me about what happened to Jake Williamson last night. It’s so disturbing,” Delilah said.

  I nodded. “Yeah, it is.” I squinted. “But it also had nothing to do with me. I mean, David and I just happened to pull into the parking lot shortly before it occurred. So I don’t get why you want me to stop into your shop—”

  Delilah stared deep into my eyes. “Sabrina. We both know that danger is no stranger to your life. That you always seem to find yourself in the middle of sticky situations. It’s only a matter of time before trouble arrives at your doorstep. That’s why it has never been a more important time for you to get a sphere of protection enchantment.”

  Delilah’s bluntness put me back on my heels.

  I took a deep breath before replying. “Look. I know you’re just trying to help, but I already got one of those circle of protection enchantments a while back and it didn’t work.”

  “How can you say that?” Delilah asked.

  I opened my mouth to answer.

  Delilah spoke up again before I had the chance to get any words out. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

  “Well, yeah,” I said.

  “So how can you tell me it didn’t work?” Delilah replied.

  I remained tongue-tied for a moment.

  “You don’t have an answer, do you?” Delilah asked.

  I held my pointer finger up. “Yeah, I do. I mean, you said it yourself, trouble has a way of finding me.”

  “True, but you always escape danger unharmed. That is the enchantment at work,” Delilah said.

  My eyebrows knitted. “By your logic, then, if the enchantment is working so well, then why are you urging me to come to your shop for this sphere of protection thing?”

  “The original enchantment I performed will not protect you forever. It needs to be refreshed. And if my astral predictions are correct, you will need an even more powerful enchantment to ward off the danger that is yet to come,” Delilah said.

  “What kind of danger are you talking about?” I asked.

  “The kind that makes getting a sphere of protection enchantment an absolute necessity,” Delilah said.

  For someone who didn’t provide a lot of details, Delilah sure had a knack for being able to incite panic. Unfortunately, it all sounded like an attempt to wring money out of me.

  I shook my head. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to pass.”

  Concern filled Delilah’s eyes. “Sabrina, this is your life we’re talking about. You can’t afford to live so cavalierly without any astral armor.”

  Ugh. The last thing I wanted was a high-pressure sales pitch.

  I replied politely, but firmly, “I’m going to take my chances.”

  Delilah reached for the crystal necklace that she was wearing. She then took it off and held it out for me. “Here. Take this.”

  I shook my head. “No. I can’t—”

  Delilah put the necklace in my hand. “Please, take it.”

  I grimaced. “But it’s yours.”

  “I have more at the shop. You, meanwhile, need all the protection that you can get,” Delilah said.

  “I can’t just take your necklace.”

  “I insist.”

  I pulled out my wallet. “Fine. But I have to give you something for it—”

  Delilah shook her head. “Put your wallet away. I don’t want your money.”

  I squinted. “Seriously?”

  Delilah nodded. “Yes. Money is not nearly as important as your safety.”

  My eyes widened. Maybe I had been wrong about Delilah. Perhaps her high-pressure sales pitch wasn’t a shameless cash grab, after all.

  I stared at the crystal necklace. “I still don’t feel comfortable taking this. It’s yours. You should keep it.”

  “But—” Delilah started to say.

  “I’ll tell you what, though,” I said. “I’ll stop by your shop tomorrow afternoon. Then you can tell me more about this sphere of protection enchantment.”

  “Good. That is a wise decision,” Delilah said.

  “In the meantime, both Kelly and I have to get back to work,” I replied.

  Chapter Eight

  I pulled Kelly aside before she headed back behind the counter.

  “We have to talk,” I said.

  A glimmer was in Kelly’s eyes as she replied. “Isn’t Delilah wonderful?”

  I held my tongue and forced a smile. I had a much more New Aged term for her, but I decided to keep it to myself.

  “She’s something, all right,” I said.

  “Speaking of, I’m glad you’re going to get this sphere of protection enchantment. It could be a real lifesaver,” Kelly said.

  Bless Kelly’s heart. She was so sweet and earnest. She believed every word that came out of Delilah’s mouth. Unfortunately, her blind faith in Delilah put me in a delicate position. Especially since I wasn’t convinced that Delilah’s services were anything more than New Age hocus-pocus.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  Kelly stared deep into my eyes. “No. Definitely. Sabrina, this is not a matter that you can afford to take lightly.”

  “I’m not. It’s just that I’m not as firm of a believer in those enchantments as you are.”

  “You should be. This is a dire time.”

  “Kelly, don’t you think you’re overstating things a little?” I asked. “Besides, I’m not really comfortable with you discussing details of my personal life with Delilah.”

  She gave me a chilling look.

  The expression on her face was enough to make me quiver.

  “If the situation wasn’t so grave, I wouldn’t have involved Delilah. But the fact is, you’re going to need all the astral armor you can get,” Kelly said.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  Kelly reached for the crystal necklace that she was wearing. “Here. Since you refused to take Delilah’s, I’m going to insist that you take mine.”

  “Wait. Why?”

  “For protection, of course.”

  I shrugged. “From what? You need to tell me what’s going on. Kelly, what has you so spooked?”

  “I had a vision last night,” she replied.

  “What kind of vision?”

  “The kind that you can’t afford to ignore.”

  My muscles tensed up. “Why? What did you see?”

  “You, Delilah, and an unmistakable level of trauma,” Kelly said.

  I crinkled my nose. “Can you be more specific than that?”

  “I know you really want details, but I don’t have many of those. My vision was more a collection of haunting images mixed with this piercing feeling of dread.”

  I winced. “Wow. That’s both vague and terrifying.”

  “Why
do you think I was so desperate to talk to Delilah? I was hoping she could make sense of it. Or have an idea about how to keep it from becoming a reality.”

  “I know your heart is in the right place, but even a few small details will help more than any enchantment than Delilah can perform.”

  “Sabrina, now is not the time to let your doubts about celestial assistance cloud your judgment. You need to open your mind. Your survival may depend on it.”

  “Can we just push all this crystal stuff aside for a second?” I asked.

  “No.”

  I shrugged. “Why not?”

  “It can’t be coincidence that both you and Delilah were in my vision.”

  “Sure it can. I mean, you have been talking to Delilah a lot lately. At the same time, you have been very concerned about me. Maybe your mind just lumped us both together by accident.”

  She shook her head. “Trust me. Nothing that I saw was accidental. I believe that Delilah was in my vision because she might be the only one who can help you.”

  “I’m going to pay Delilah’s shop a visit tomorrow. In the meantime, can you give me something a little more concrete to work with about this vision of yours?”

  “Just that the stars are misaligned. And with the moon waning in such an ominous fashion, you need to be on high alert.”

  Chapter Nine

  Kelly’s words sure put a scare into me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake off her warning. The problem was, even though she had no evidence to back up her claims, it didn’t mean that she was completely off base. After all, what if she was onto something? How foolish would I feel if I didn’t give her words of caution some weight?

  Once again, I found myself staring down an uncertain future, all the while having to look over my shoulder. At the same time, I wasn’t about to let Kelly’s ominous words cripple me.

  I went on with my day. A few hours later, I finished up my work shift and met up with David for supper. We had a wonderful meal, the kind of delicious steak dinner that could only be topped by a scrumptious bowl of gelato. Much to my taste buds’ delight, I made quick work of a delectable order of chocolate ice cream at Luigi’s Gelato. After such a sweet treat, Kelly’s words of warning were pushed to the back of my mind.

  That was exactly where they stayed until the following day when I took my pet corgi, Snickerdoodle, out for a morning walk.

  The little stumpy ball of cuteness was busy sniffing every tree, fire hydrant, and light pole in the neighborhood when my phone rang. I checked the caller identification screen, saw Kelly’s name on it, and took the call.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  Kelly’s voice took on a frantic tone as she replied over the phone line. “Sabrina, I need your help. Something terrible has happened.”

  “Kelly, what’s the matter?”

  “You need to come over here right now.”

  “Why? Will you please tell me what’s going on?”

  “I can’t believe it. How could something like this happen?”

  “Something like what?” I asked. “You’re not making any sense.”

  “She’s not breathing. She’s…dead,” Kelly said.

  I scrunched my nose. “Wait. Who is?”

  Kelly didn’t respond. A silence took hold of the conversation. When a few more seconds went by without my friend replying, I opened my mouth to speak up.

  Finally, before I was able to get any words out, Kelly answered. “Delilah.”

  A queasiness came to my stomach. I put my hand on my belly, but it didn’t stop me from feeling like I was about to throw up. Thankfully, I was able to take a few deep breaths and muster some resolve.

  Kelly kept talking. “Her body is on the ground. There’s a big crystal block on the floor beside her that has a blood stain on it.”

  I opened my mouth again to express my sympathies, but no words came out. What a time for my tongue to get tied.

  Kelly became tired of waiting for me to reply. “Sabrina, are you there?”

  Finally, words came to me. “Yeah. I just can’t believe it. Where are you?”

  “At the crystal shop.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll be right there.”

  Chapter Ten

  On my drive over to the crystal shop, I called David and told him everything that Kelly had said to me. My boyfriend told me that he would meet me there.

  I ended up arriving at the crystal shop first. When I pulled up in front of the store, I spotted Kelly standing out front, wiping tears from her eyes. I got out of my car, rushed over to my friend, and gave her a big hug.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  Kelly held me tight but did not say a word. When I went to pull back from the hug, she pulled my body toward her again.

  “Don’t let go,” she said.

  “Look. I’m here for you, but I need to see what happened.”

  Reluctantly, she let me go. I pulled back and turned my focus to the crystal shop. The front door was cracked open. I slowly entered the shop, careful not to move or touch anything.

  I only had to take one step inside the shop before I spotted Delilah’s body on the ground. Just like Kelly had told me over the phone, a big, paperweight-sized, bloodstained crystal was on the floor beside the corpse. The crystal probably weighed in at about ten pounds, making it an ideal object to use as a murder weapon.

  David arrived at the shop a few minutes later. I brought him up to speed then let him begin investigating the scene while I walked out to the parking lot to console Kelly.

  At least, that was the plan. In reality, despite my attempt to comfort Kelly, my friend was a complete wreck. My sympathetic words were no match for the sobbing that she was doing.

  A hug did little to calm her nerves. That wasn’t surprising to me. After all, death was a difficult thing to grapple with, especially when someone had not seen many corpses in their life. As it was, even with all the murder investigations that I had taken part in, the sight of a dead body was still shocking to me.

  Kelly’s body was shaking as her thoughts came out in a stream-of-conscious fashion. “This is so tragic. How could something like this happen?”

  “I don’t know, but David will get to the bottom of this,” I replied.

  “Delilah had such a generous soul. What kind of person would do something like this to her?”

  “I’m sorry. I wish I had an answer for you.”

  “Sabrina. We both know there is only one answer. A crazy person, that’s who.”

  “I can’t argue with that.”

  She groaned. “I can’t believe this. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I know. It’s really difficult to stomach.”

  “Mostly since it could have been prevented.” She gritted her teeth. “Honestly, it probably should have been stopped.”

  I crinkled my nose. “What are you talking about?”

  “My vision. The one with you and Delilah in it. I thought you were the one who was in danger. But it was Delilah who I should have been concerned about.”

  “Kelly, I know what you’re thinking, and you can’t beat yourself up about this—”

  She cut me off. “How could I not? I made a deadly mistake.” She grimaced. “How could I have been so wrong?”

  I waggled my pointer finger at her. “Don’t do this to yourself. You didn’t know this was going to happen.”

  “You say that, but my gut was trying to tell me—to warn me that something awful was about to occur.”

  “True, but your gut was also awfully short on specifics. You can’t blame yourself for a murder that someone else committed.”

  She let out a sigh. “Look. I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but it’s going to take a lot more than comforting words to do that.”

  “Trust me, I know that in times of tragedy, words can only do so much,” I said. “But I also know that beating yourself up won’t get you anywhere, either.”

  The sad look in Kelly’s eyes disappeared and
was replaced with anger. “Sabrina, you have to promise me something.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I need you to find out who did this.”

  My heart grew heavy. I had been there before. Staring down a tragedy. Faced with an intense yearning for justice. Not being able to breathe easy until the guilty party was behind bars. Ignoring my feelings when they needed my attention the most. That was why I didn’t want Kelly to go through the same thing I had.

  “You just lost your friend. It’s important that you grieve,” I said.

  “You’re right. But it’s also important that the person who did this to Delilah be put behind bars for the rest of their life,” Kelly said. “Until her killer is caught, I can’t grieve. That’s why I need you to promise me that her murderer won’t get away with this.”

  I stared long and hard into her eyes. “I’m certainly going to do everything in my power to bring Delilah’s killer to justice.”

  “Good.” Kelly grabbed the crystal necklace that she was wearing and began to take it off. “Here. You need this now more than ever.”

  “Kelly—” I started to reply.

  “Don’t say no.” She removed the necklace and handed it to me. “Sinister forces are out there. You need all the protection that you can get, astral or otherwise.”

  “All right,” I said.

  “May the stars watch out for you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The medical examiner and a number of police deputies arrived on the scene a short time later. Before long, the area was cordoned off with yellow tape. While David waited for the medical examiner to finish taking a look at the body, he asked Kelly to provide him with an official statement.

  Kelly was still shaken. “Oh. Okay. Do you need it right now?”

  “I know it’s a very difficult time for you, but it’s important that I get as much information as I can.”

  “All right. I’m afraid there’s not much to tell you,” she replied.

  “You say that, but sometimes the smallest of details can lead to a big break in a case,” he replied.

  “If you say so. What do you want to know exactly?” Kelly asked.