by Morgana Best
Given that the so-called energy drink was red, I realized it was Witches’ Brew, and I thought it a clever way to get around the problem. I only hoped Lucas didn’t notice, but surely he would have to wonder about me drinking a red drink.
“What happened?” Aunt Agnes asked me, followed by, “Only answer if you feel well enough to speak.” She shot a long look at Lucas. “Mr O’Callaghan, you’re soaking wet, too. Dorothy, hurry and fetch him some large towels.”
“I found green potatoes at the organic shop,” I said. “They were sprouting quite heavily, and they were for sale for planting. The shop assistant told me that a couple had bought most of them and she described Megan and Jack Murphy. My phone’s battery was flat so I went to the car to charge it, and I called the police and left a message for the detectives. When I was driving back here, Jack Murphy tried to run me off the road in his ute. He had the spotlight on me.”
There was a collective gasp. “And then, he ran me off the road into a gully. The car went down through some tea tree scrub.” A single tear found its way to my cheek, and I struggled not to cry.
Aunt Dorothy burst into the room with five large towels and handed them to Lucas. He thanked her and put one over his shoulders, and then folded another two into squares. He walked over to me, put the towels on the couch next to me, and sat down.
“Sorry about your car, Aunt Agnes,” I said in a small voice.
She waved both hands at me. “Nonsense! The main thing is that you’re all right. It was insured anyway, so I’ll get a much better car.”
“What happened then?” Aunt Maude said. “The nice detective said Jack Murphy shot at you.”
I trembled. Lucas took up my hand. He patted it, a gesture meant to calm me, but it made my heart race ever faster. My elevated heart rate made the throbbing in my head worse, only I wasn’t complaining. I was quite happy to have Lucas so close to me.
“He shone the spotlight around, but I was hiding behind a log and he didn’t see me, so he just shot in my direction randomly, I guess,” I said.
Maude looked at Lucas. “The detective said you disarmed Jack Murphy.”
“Yes.” That was all he said.
“How did you do that?” Her voice sounded genuinely surprised, although I knew the aunts knew full well that Lucas was not only a powerful vampire, but a Cleaner. Jack Murphy was no match for him. Still, they all had to play along, because Lucas thought they were ordinary women. Or did he?
“That was very brave of you,” Aunt Agnes said, and the others agreed.
“It was lucky that I was driving along that road at the time,” Lucas said. “I saw the ute on the edge of the road and the spotlight shining into the gully, so I thought something was wrong. I just didn’t realise how wrong until I got out of the car to see if the driver needed any help.”
“When did you realise something was wrong?” Linda asked him.
“I knew when he tried to shoot me,” Lucas said.
The aunts muttered. Aunt Agnes smiled at Lucas. “I’m so grateful to you, Lucas. You saved Valkyrie’s life.”
Lucas appeared to be quite embarrassed. “The police arrived soon after I did. They would’ve had everything under control soon enough.”
I squeezed his hand. “No, you saved me.”
Lucas blushed. I didn’t even know he was capable of blushing. I leant back against the soft pillow and closed my eyes.
When I awoke, there was no sign of Lucas or Linda, only Aunt Agnes, sitting by the fire, knitting.
When she saw I was awake, she crossed to me and handed me a goblet. “Drink this. You need to get as much Witches’ Brew into yourself as you can.”
“I…”
“What was that, dear?”
“Nothing.” I had nearly said that Lucas had given me Witches’ Brew. “Where is everyone?”
“It’s five in the morning. You slept a long time.”
I propped myself up on my elbow and took a cup of wine. I still felt dizzy, but the throbbing had subsided. “The detectives?”
“They came, but they didn’t want to disturb you when you were asleep. They’re coming back in the morning. They told us the whole story. Jack Murphy made a full confession.”
I sipped some more Witches’ Brew. “What did he say?”
“Apparently, he decided to kill Paul Williams the night he saw Linda at the motel. He was still angry over his pig dog, Killer.”
“Why didn’t he just go and shoot Paul?” I asked her.
“Apparently he thought he was being very clever with the green potatoes. His mother had given him green potatoes as a child, by mistake, and he’d been very ill. In fact, he’d been hospitalised for a week. That’s how he knew about green potatoes.”
“And his wife wasn’t in it with him?”
Aunt Agnes shook her head. “Apparently not. He said she took sleeping pills every night. That night he crushed some and put them in her hot chocolate, so she wouldn’t notice that he’d left the motel room. That gave him an alibi.”
Something had been bugging me. “What form were they in? Mashed potatoes, hash browns, what?”
“Yes, mashed potatoes,” Aunt Agnes said. “Jack took some beers over to Paul and said he’d bumped into Linda at the motel. He pretended to commiserate with him over having an unhappy marriage and apologised for the misunderstanding over his dog. He said he wanted to make amends, and he’d cook him a big steak dinner. He heaped lots of mashed potatoes on top, made from the green, sprouting potatoes. He said he knew there were enough to kill him. He thought it would just look like a heart attack.”
I tried to comprehend what Aunt Agnes had said, and then promptly fell asleep.
Chapter 23
I was sitting outside, under the blue umbrella, in a comfortable chair at the outdoor gardening setting directly behind Mugwort Manor. The heavy rain of the previous night had gone, taking with it the humidity, and leaving a pleasant temperature.
I was tired and sore, but painkillers and Witches’ Brew had taken the edge off my injuries.
I had avoided looking in the mirror when I had taken an early morning shower, given that the bruises on my arm looked bad enough.
Linda and the aunts were preparing morning tea for Lucas, to thank him for saving my life. They were going to stage it in the dining room, but when I had suggested sitting in the fresh air, they had readily agreed.
Despite not having much of an appetite, I certainly appreciated the feast before me. I wondered how the aunts had managed to conjure up so much food in such a short space of time. Pretty, floral, three-tiered cake stands were laden with sandwiches and cupcakes. The bottom layers held all manner of sandwiches and mini quiches. The second layers held lamingtons, those delicious chocolate-coated sponge fingers covered with coconut, and the top layers held a vast array of cupcakes.
Large glass jugs of lemonade tinkled as the gentle breeze moved the ice cubes around.
And now Lucas was coming. My stomach twisted into knots at the sight of him. He moved in a powerful way, like a panther. I trembled. He was a vampire, not a Shifter, and a Cleaner at that, the most deadly vampire there could be.
And now he knew my identity. This was a secret between us, and I couldn’t tell my aunts or Linda.
And I trusted him. I didn’t know if that trust was misplaced—only time would tell.
The aunts appeared and flocked around Lucas. “Have a seat, dear,” Aunt Agnes said, all but pushing Lucas into a chair opposite me.
I had to smile—even though he had saved my life, she didn’t want him sitting too close to me. Typical. Everyone took their seats. Aunt Maude offered Lucas a large slice of white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, which he accepted with a smile.
“You’re supposed to start with the sandwiches, Maude,” Aunt Agnes muttered, but then she turned to Lucas. “We can’t thank you enough for saving Valkyrie,” she said, to a murmur of agreement from the others.
Lucas merely nodded.
“Another murder solved,�
�� I said.
Aunt Agnes waved a finger at me. “Yes, but you have been too close to the murderer on both occasions.”
Aunt Maude nodded. “Yes, way too close.”
“You almost got yourself killed,” Aunt Dorothy added.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to agree with your aunts,” Lucas said. “Last time, the murderer kidnapped you, and this time, the murderer ran you off the road and shot at you. You’re very lucky to be alive.”
“You’ll have to be much more careful next time,” Aunt Agnes said.
Linda spoke up for the first time. “I hope there is no next time.”
Lucas frowned. “I hope so, too, but we need to be guarded.”
He didn’t say it, but I knew he was referring to the series of murders down south. As yet, they had been unsolved.
Aunt Agnes offered everyone another cupcake. “Whatever the future brings, we have each other. Friendship and family—even if they are dysfunctional, they are the two most important things in the world. And with those, we can get through anything and everything.”
With her words, a happy cloud of optimism wafted up from the table. I looked around at everyone, a Shifter and five vampires, eating cupcakes and laughing.
Lucas caught my eye, and something passed between us.
I didn’t know what the future held, but at that moment, I was filled with optimism.
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Next Book In This Series
Witches’ Charms
Coming soon!
Also by Morgana Best
Miss Spelled (The Kitchen Witch Book 1)
Amelia Spelled has had a bad week. Her boyfriend dumps her when she inadvertently gives him food poisoning; her workplace, a telecommunications centre, fires all their staff as they are outsourcing offshore, and she is evicted due to smoke damage resulting from her failed attempts at baking. Amelia thinks her luck has changed when she inherits her aunt’s store and beautiful Victorian house.
Yet has Amelia jumped out of the frying pan into the fire? The store is a cake store, and her aunt was a witch. To add to the mix, the house has secrets all of its own.
When a man is murdered in the cake store, will Amelia be able to cook up a way to solve the crime? Or will her spells prove as bad as her baking?
A Ghost of a Chance (Witch Woods Funeral Home Book 1)
Nobody knows that Laurel Bay can see and talk to ghosts. When she inherits a funeral home, she is forced to return from the city to the small town of Witch Woods to breathe life into the business. It is a grave responsibility, but Laurel is determined that this will be no dead-end job.
There she has to contend with her manipulative and overly religious mother, more than one ghost, and a secretive but handsome accountant.
When the murder of a local woman in the funeral home strangles the finances, can Laurel solve the murder?
Or will this be the death of her business?
Note: This book is humorously irreverent in places, so please read only if you won’t be offended.
Christmas Spirit (The Middle-aged Ghost Whisper Book 1)
Prudence Wallflower tours the country, making live appearances. She connects people with loved ones who have passed on. However, her reputation as a clairvoyant medium is failing, and even Prudence has begun to doubt herself. She has never seen a ghost, but receives impressions from the dead. This all changes when the ghost of a detective appears to her and demands her help to solve a murder. Prudence finds herself out of her depth, and to make matters worse, she is more attracted to this ghost than any man she has ever met.
SERIES BY MORGANA BEST
Vampires and Wine
1) Witches’ Brew
2) Witches’ Secrets
3) Witches’ Charms - coming soon!
The Kitchen Witch
1) Miss Spelled - Now on Audio!
2) Dizzy Spells - Now on Audio!
3) Sit for a Spell - Now on Audio!
4) Spelling Mistake
5) Ex-Spelled
6) The Halloween Spell
7) Spellcheck - coming!
The Middle-aged Ghost Whisperer
1) Christmas Spirit - Now on Audio!
2) Ghost Hunter
3) There Must be a Happy Medium
Witch Woods Funeral Home
1) A Ghost of a Chance- Now on Audio!
2) Nothing to Ghost About - Now on Audio!
3) Make the Ghost of It
4) Ghost Stories
And Morgana’s non-Witch Cosy mysteries:
Cocoa Narel Chocolate Shop Mysteries
1) Sweet Revenge
2) The Sugar Hit
The Australian Amateur Sleuth
1) Live and Let Diet
2) Natural-Born Grillers
3) Dye Hard
4) The Prawn Identity
5) Any Given Sundae
AUDIO. All Morgana’s books are currently being narrated for Audio.
About Morgana Best
#1 Best-selling Cosy Mystery author, Morgana Best, lives in a sunny beachside town in Australia. She has one highly demanding, rescued cat, and two less demanding dogs, a chocolate Labrador and a rescued Dingo.
Morgana is a former college professor who now writes full time.
In her spare time, Morgana loves to read cosy mysteries and walk her dogs along the beach.
