A Taste of Magic (A Sugarcomb Lake Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Alaine Allister

  “What did I interrupt?” Parker asked as they stepped off the elevator and exited the main lobby.

  “Never mind,” Clarissa said, feeling disappointed and confused by the way things had played out with Adam. “Excuse me, I have to be going,” she said as she abruptly turned and walked toward her car.

  “Are you headed back to Sugarcomb Lake?” Parker wanted to know.

  “Yes.”

  “Great, so am I. I’ll follow you.”

  Ugh, just her luck that he was headed the same direction.

  “Don’t follow too close,” Clarissa cautioned. “I have road rage.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Parker laughed. “I’ll keep a respectful distance, promise.”

  He gave her a wave. Then he walked off to his luxury sports car, looking as perfect as ever.

  ***

  When Clarissa arrived at the bustling little coffee shop on Main Street, she didn’t see Liana anywhere. She did, however, spot her best friend’s bubble gum pink laptop. It had been left unattended in a booth near the back.

  Sugarcomb Lake was the sort of place where one could leave a laptop unattended and not have to worry about it being stolen. Clarissa had always loved that about the tightknit small town. The sad reality was there weren’t many places like that left anymore.

  She sat down at the booth and awaited her friend’s return.

  A moment later Parker walked over and sat down across from her.

  “What are you doing here?” Clarissa sputtered, surprised to see him.

  “I’m here to talk to you,” he grinned.

  “Don’t you have somewhere to be, something to do?” she asked in confusion.

  “Nope, you were my reason for coming to town,” Parker informed her. Then he glanced at her giant coffee thermos. “I don’t quite understand why you came to a coffee shop when you’ve already got coffee, but whatever.”

  “I’m here to see Liana,” Clarissa replied. “She should be back any minute.”

  “Ah, I see. How do you take your coffee?” Parker asked, standing up.

  “She likes it with two creams, no sugar,” Liana piped up as she returned from the ladies’ room. “Hi, you must be Parker,” she smiled. “Thank you so much for helping me out this morning!”

  “No problem,” Parker replied. “And how do you take your coffee, Liana?”

  “Intravenously,” Clarissa quipped.

  Liana giggled. “Yeah, if only. I’ve never met a coffee I didn’t like.”

  “I’ll surprise you, then,” Parker decided before walking over to the counter to order.

  As soon as Parker was gone, Clarissa gave Liana a disapproving look. “You called him.”

  Liana ignored the accusatory statement. She sat down across from Clarissa and leaned across the table with excitement in her eyes. “You forgot to mention how completely gorgeous he is!” she hissed. “I can’t believe a guy like that is single!”

  “How do you know he is?” Clarissa shot back.

  “I asked,” Liana admitted.

  “You did what?!” Clarissa mulled that over for a second. Then a mortifying realization hit her like a ton of bricks. “Are you…are you going to try to date him?” she asked hesitantly. The thought of her best friend going after Parker made her feel sick to her stomach.

  “Under different circumstances, you bet I would!” Liana replied without hesitation. “But you saw him first. I can respect that,” she said, much to Clarissa’s relief. “In fact, I’m going to give you two lovebirds some privacy.”

  “Wait –” Clarissa protested, but it was too late.

  Liana was already on her feet packing up her stuff. Then, in a flash, she was gone.

  When Parker returned a moment later, he and Clarissa had the booth to themselves.

  “So Burke’s not the guy, huh?” Parker observed quietly as he slid into the booth across from Clarissa. He handed her a coffee.

  “What makes you think that?” Clarissa asked, jumping as their fingertips inadvertently brushed. She took a huge gulp of coffee – made just the way she liked it – to try to distract herself.

  “Admit it, you were at Black & Burke Investors today because you were working on a lead. And considering we’re now sitting at a coffee shop instead of being down at the police station…well, it would seem the lead didn’t pan out. Want to talk it out?”

  “Not really.”

  “Okay, well I’ll talk and you listen. I’ve been doing some independent research of my own. But I’ve hit a bit of a brick wall, which is why I need your help. Maybe two heads will be better than one. I talked to a source at the police station,” Parker confided. “I saw the crime scene photos.”

  That piqued Clarissa’s interest. “You did?” she asked, unable to contain her excitement.

  “Yeah, and there was a signed check on the floor near Jed’s body. It was made out to Adam Burke and it was for a considerable sum of money. When Liana told me you were at Black & Burke Investors this morning, I thought for sure Adam had to be our guy.”

  “I thought so too,” Clarissa admitted. “But now I’m rethinking everything I thought I knew. Adam was blackmailing Jed – or trying to, at least. Jed was running around with his secretary and Adam needed money to pay off a gambling debt,” she explained quickly. “Earlier this morning I was positive Adam had killed Jed. But now I’m not so sure.”

  Parker was listening intently, but he said nothing. Instead, he sat there quietly. He was apparently trying to process the new information. Maybe he was also wondering why Clarissa had withheld so much information from him in the first place – though Parker was a smart man so the answer ought to have been obvious.

  She sighed and stared listlessly at her coffee cup. “I don’t know what made me assume that solving this thing would be a piece of cake. It isn’t. Maybe we’ll never know the truth. Maybe Bonnie will be convicted of a crime she didn’t commit and the true killer will get away with it.”

  “No. If anyone can figure this out, it’s you,” Parker declared with certainty. “You have a good eye for this stuff…good instincts. You pay attention to detail and you think things through. I have faith you’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

  Clarissa gave him a wan smile. “Thanks for saying that. I wish I agreed.” She hated that she sounded so defeated, but she didn’t have the energy to fake confidence. She’d had high hopes for her meeting with Adam. When it hadn’t gone as planned, she had felt the wind go right out of her sails.

  “There was one other thing at the murder scene, but I don’t know what it means,” Parker said.

  There was a flicker of hope in Clarissa’s eyes. “What was it?”

  “It was a ring,” Parker replied. “I wish I had taken a picture of it. It looked like…” He trailed off as he considered how best to describe it. Then he grabbed a paper napkin from the dispenser on the table. “Got a pen?”

  Clarissa rummaged around in her purse and then handed over her favorite ballpoint. Then she watched intently as Parker began to slowly, carefully draw.

  The first thing Clarissa noticed was that Parker Tweed was a terrible artist. He was the sort of guy who could somehow manage to butcher even a simple stick figure. That gave her a strange sense of satisfaction. Mr. Perfect had a fault after all – ha!

  The second thing that popped into her head was that she recognized the symbol. It took a moment, as Parker’s rendition of it was pretty horrible. But then it clicked. It was Sugarcomb Lake High’s mascot.

  “Prince Poindexter!” Clarissa blurted out.

  Parker paused and looked up at her in confusion. “Huh?”

  “Prince Poindexter the Pig!” she said, pointing at Parker’s rudimentary drawing.

  “Oh, for a second there I thought you had lost your marbles. What’s this about a pig?”

  “It’s the high school’s mascot,” she explained.

  “Ah, I see. That’s a terrible name for a mascot.” Parker raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean a
high school student was in the cabin the night of Jed’s murder?” he wondered aloud. “Maybe someone broke in, was caught red-handed when Jed came in and there was a struggle…”

  “That’s an interesting theory, but I’m not sure we can deduce that much from the ring,” Clarissa cautioned. “Everyone who went to Sugarcomb Lake High has one of those rings. I have one of those rings.”

  “So you’re the killer?” Parker asked without missing a beat.

  “Yes,” she said dryly. “And if you’re not careful, you could be next.”

  Parker laughed and said something else, but Clarissa was no longer listening.

  A group of young women had sat down in the booth behind her shortly after her arrival at the coffee shop. She had been tuning out their giggles and chit chat until then, but then something captured her attention.

  “Let’s take a selfie for Chase to show him what he’s missing!” one of the girls trilled.

  There was a kerfuffle of activity in the booth behind Clarissa as the young women scrambled to position themselves. She didn’t turn around to look. She didn’t have to. She knew exactly what was happening: duck faces and heart fingers. Wasn’t that what always happened when a group of giggly teenagers or twenty-somethings got together?

  “So he’s like, at the airport right now?” a second young woman asked.

  “Yep, his flight leaves sometime this afternoon, I think.”

  “He seriously won’t be around for the next year?” a third girl piped up. “But who will we party with? Who will buy us booze? Since when is Chase interested in Europe, anyway? I can’t believe he didn’t even say goodbye.”

  Clarissa glanced out the window of the coffee shop.

  She saw Nora out on the sidewalk, panhandling like always. As usual the eccentric, wild-haired woman was wearing at least half a dozen different colored dresses. Today she was banging on a drum while wailing tunelessly at the top of her lungs. She really was a strange one.

  “Chase is totally running away,” one of the girls behind Clarissa said with an air of self-importance. “His life was like, completely ruined after he got fired. He’ll never work in politics again or something dumb like that.”

  “Politicians do worse things than flash cameras at frat parties all the time. Come on. There’s always a scandal of some sort in the news. The mayor’s office totally overreacted if you ask me. And it sounds like Chase is overreacting too. I really doubt his career is over.”

  “I still can’t believe he lost his job over a few stupid pictures. Talk about an overreaction!”

  “Remember the night we played beer pong?” the first girl asked suddenly.

  All of the young women collapsed in a fit of giggles.

  Clarissa abruptly jumped to her feet.

  Parker, who had still been talking, fell silent. He looked up at her in confusion. “What?”

  “I have to go,” Clarissa said quietly, nodding discreetly toward the girls in the next booth.

  The charismatic heir to The Green City Chronicle stood up too, and leaned in close so only she could hear him. “They probably don’t even realize how disruptive they’re being,” he pointed out in a low voice. “But we can move to a quieter table if they’re getting on your nerves.”

  “It’s not that,” Clarissa said, rushing to gather up her things. “I have to go!”

  Parker must have sensed the urgency in her actions, because he grabbed his coat.

  “I’m coming with you,” he announced.

  She didn’t argue. There wasn’t time.

  “Where are we going?” Parker demanded as he got into the passenger seat of Clarissa’s old clunker of a car. “What’s going on?”

  “Green City Airport,” Clarissa told him as she stuck the key in the ignition and put her foot on the gas pedal. It was a good thing she was an aggressive driver by nature because there wasn’t much time to spare. “Hang on,” she cautioned before speeding toward the highway.

  “What’s going on?” Parker asked again. “Slow down!”

  “There’s no time to slow down,” Clarissa said through gritted teeth, her eyes on the road. “Now let me concentrate. And keep an eye out for cops,” she added, realizing how inconvenient it would be to get pulled over for speeding.

  To his credit, Parker shut his mouth and did as he was told. By the time they made it to Green City his face was as white as a sheet. He looked rather traumatized by Clarissa’s crazy driving. But like a trooper, he jumped out of the car and followed her into the airport.

  Chapter 19

  It was a good thing Green City Airport was relatively small, because there wasn’t a second to spare. Clarissa raced through the building with Parker on her heels. When she saw Chase standing in line about to check his luggage, she gave a sigh of relief.

  They weren’t too late.

  She approached him quickly. She hadn’t had an opportunity to actually think about what she would do or say. All she knew was that she had to move fast. Otherwise Chase would be halfway across the world and an innocent woman would be convicted of a murder she hadn’t committed.

  “Chase,” Clarissa called out.

  He turned when he saw her. He looked confused for an instant but then he smiled broadly. “Oh, hey,” he greeted her. “Are you headed on a trip too?” he asked politely. Then he glanced down and furrowed his brow. “Where’s your luggage?”

  “I’m not going anywhere. But you are.”

  “Well yeah…I’m going to Europe.”

  “No, you’re going back to Sugarcomb Lake to face what you did,” Clarissa informed him.

  Chase looked from her to Parker and back again in utter astonishment. Then, without warning, he bolted out of the line and ran for the airport exit.

  “Don’t let him get away!” Clarissa hollered as she gave chase.

  As she ran through the airport, Clarissa made a mental note to work out more. Running shouldn’t be so difficult, should it? Her poor legs were going to be unbearably sore and stiff in the morning! Ugh, she hated running.

  But on the bright side, imagine the calories she was burning. She’d be able to eat an entire box of chocolate chip cookies guilt-free! Well, mostly guilt-free.

  Chase was faster than Clarissa.

  But he wasn’t faster than Parker.

  Before Clarissa could even comprehend what was happening, Parker had caught up to Chase and put him in a headlock. It was pretty impressive, she had to admit.

  “Let me go!” Chase bellowed.

  “No. You killed Jed Black,” Clarissa announced once she caught up to the two men. “You can’t run away from that,” she added as she struggled to pretend she wasn’t out of breath.

  Parker’s eyes widened at her words. She felt a bit bad for leaving him out of the loop, but everything had fallen into place so fast that there simply hadn’t been time to fill him in. Thankfully, he seemed to trust her judgment…or maybe he just really liked putting random people in headlocks.

  Clarissa’s words had a profound effect on Chase: they made him more desperate. His desperation must have given him a surge of adrenaline, because he suddenly brought his arm forward and elbowed Parker hard in the stomach.

  “Ugh!” Parker grunted. He doubled over in pain, releasing his grip on the younger man.

  Chase looked around wildly like a caged animal. He was looking for a way out.

  But Clarissa wasn’t about to let him escape.

  She looked down and realized she was still holding her coffee thermos. She hadn’t even realized until then that she was carrying it. In her haste to bring Chase to justice she must have absentmindedly grabbed it out of her car.

  She unscrewed the cap as she recalled what she had read in the potion book. If she drank the vile concoction – and managed to keep it down – she would be safe from harm for precisely thirty seconds.

  Instead, she threw the caustic mixture in Chase’s face. That seemed like a far safer bet.

  “Ah, it burns!” he howled, falling to his knees. “You
witch!”

  Clarissa smirked at that. He didn’t know how accurate his words really were.

  Her smirk faltered, however, when airport security caught up with them. In fact, several stone-faced people in uniform were rapidly marching over and they were all looking right at her. Clarissa glanced down at the empty thermos she still held in her hand and gulped.

  “Ma’am,” a gigantic, terrifying woman in uniform said gruffly. “You need to come with me.”

  ***

  “Are you ready to go?” Parker asked hours later as Clarissa emerged from the Sugarcomb Lake police station. He was leaning against a tree waiting for her. He somehow managed to look flawless despite getting into a brawl at the airport and being loaded into the back of a police cruiser. Not a single hair on his head was out of place.

  Clarissa was sure she wasn’t so lucky.

  She nodded wearily. It had been quite the day and she was exhausted. But she was also filled with adrenaline. Once she got a few (bags of) chocolate chip cookies in her, she was sure her energy would return and she would be ready to tackle anything.

  “How’s your stomach?” Clarissa asked.

  “A little sore, but I’ll be fine,” Parker assured her. “Come on.”

  He wordlessly walked her over to his car, which he must have retrieved from outside the coffee shop while she was being interrogated. When he unlocked it and opened the front passenger door for her, Clarissa didn’t protest.

  Her car was still in Green City.

  She had been “escorted” to Sugarcomb Lake in the back of a police cruiser! Well, first she had been arrested by airport security. Next the Green City police had turned up. Then, after a lot of explaining, two officers from Sugarcomb Lake had arrived. And that was how Clarissa had found herself handcuffed in the back of a cop car en route to her sleepy hometown.

  Oh, what a day it had been!

  “How did it go?” Parker asked as he got behind the wheel.

  “Everything is finally cleared up,” Clarissa said, offering a small smile. “Thanks for that.”