The Watchful Werewolf
Twistchapel Cozy Mystery #5
by Alexandria Westbay
Copyright © 2017 Herrin Enterprises LLC
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Twistchapel Cozy Mystery Series:
The Befuddled Butcher (Book 1)
Released September 2017
The Suspicious Spirit (Book 2)
Released October 2017
The Vexing Vampire (Book 3)
Released October 2017
The Problematic Pixie (Book 4)
Released November 2017
The Watchful Werewolf (Book 5)
Released November 2017
The Wrong Witch (Book 6)
Releasing December 2017
Twistchapel Holiday Short:
The Stolen Santa
Released November 2017
For updates on the newest Twistchapel releases, as well as freebies and giveaways, come subscribe to my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/c8CE4L
If you enjoy the book I'd love to hear from you through a review on Amazon or via email at [email protected] !
Chapter 1
"That's why havarti is the best cheese," said Bart, ending his argument as we walked into Foster's Market.
"I still prefer provolone,” I said, disagreeing with the cat. Bart started to accompany me shortly after I first gained my powers as a witch. He wasn't actually a cat, but a familiar that had worked with witches for thousands of years. People typically gained their powers at a young age, but I didn’t get mine until I reached 30 in the past year.
"I'm not saying provolone isn't good, I'm just saying it's not the best.”
"Maybe things have changed since the last time you had cheese?"
"A-Are you okay, Miss Foster?"
I looked up to find my newest employee, Jake Ralin, looking at me, concern on his face. Only people connected to the paranormal were able to see Bart, so it must have looked like I was just talking to myself.
"Don't mention it to her, idiot," said Jimmy Ralin, Jake's older brother, who was in charge of the produce department. "She talks to herself from time to time, but I'm sure it's just her way of processing things. Isn't that right, Miss Foster?"
"Y-Yeah. Exactly," I lied, nodding my head. I was getting careless with how often I spoke to Bart in public. I needed to be more careful. This wasn’t the first time employees had noticed me doing it. I was so used to Bart by now, that I had a hard time remembering he was invisible. "How's the produce department treating you guys?”
“I really like it," said Jake. "Thank you so much for giving me this job!"
I smiled back at him. It wasn’t that long ago that he was running around town, causing trouble with his friends. I was happy to help get him off the streets. He was a good kid, and just needed some guidance.
"Jake has been okay, " said his brother, looking Jake over. "He's not a star employee like me, yet, but give it some time."
"You two let me know if you need anything, okay?" I said, smiling as I walked away. The brothers nodded, turning back to their work.
"That was a close one," said Bart as we continued down through the aisles of my store.
"That's not good if everyone thinks I talk to myself all the time," I whispered. I didn't want everyone to think I was crazy. But I guess that was better than them knowing that I was a witch.
Turning down our canned goods aisle, I saw a familiar face looking down at some canned tomato sauce.
"Marvin, is that you? " I asked. The man turned his head and gave me a smile. Marvin Novak was a local firefighter, just a few years older than me. We had gone to school together, but never talked very much. He always seemed nice whenever we did, unlike some of the other kids in his grade.
"Hey Zoey, long time no see," he said. He was wearing a blue shirt that said Twistchapel Fire Department on the front and back.
"How are things going for you?" I asked.
"Business is slow, so I can’t complain,” he chuckled. The town of Twistchapel was a relatively quiet town without too much trouble. At least, from the outside. The more I got involved with the magical side of the world, the more I realized even my small town wasn’t as safe as it looked. Regardless, we didn’t deal with too many fires, outside of a few accidental or natural ones. “How about you? It looks like business is treating you well. You’ve been open, what, five or six years now?”
"Something like that," I said, nodding my thanks. "Is there anything I can help you find?"
Marvin shook his head. "Nope, finding everything that I came here for."
"Making spaghetti for the others?" I asked, looking down at the tomato sauce. “I’m sure you all eat a lot. N-Not that you guys are fat or anything! Just, you know, you’ve got to burn a lot of calories.”
“What would you posses you to say that?” asked Bart. I had no clue. The words just came out, sometimes.
"No worries,” Mavin laughed as I floundered. “And no, it’s for chili, of course."
“Of course?” I asked. “What, is there a firefighter and chili stereotype I don’t know about?”
"You do know about the chili cook-off this afternoon, don't you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Chili cook-off?” I said, thinking it over. “No, I didn't know about that."
"We are doing a community chili cook-off today to help bring the community together to get some positive interactions with various public groups, such as firefighters, the police department, etc. You should come."
"We should do it," said Bart, hopping up and down impatiently. "We need to get out more. You haven’t sleuthed around in a while, and it’s honestly really boring just hanging out with you. Like, really boring. Like, I don’t know if I can make it until tomorrow if we don’t go to the chili thing today."
I gave Bart a look. I didn’t think I was that boring… but we did just have an argument about the best kind of cheese. We probably should go.
"I'll be there," I smiled.
"Great! You'll get to try Marvin's famous chili.”
“Famous, is it?” I grinned.
“It is award winning, in case you didn't know," he shrugged.
I said my goodbyes and left him to do his shopping. I walked down a few additional aisles, making sure that everything was going smoothly and saying hello to some of my other employees. Seeing that there weren’t any fires of my own that needed to be put out, I made my way up to the front of the store, where my office was located behind the cash registers.
"Morning, Zoey!" said Bridgette, one of my cashiers.
"How are you doing, Bridgette?" I asked my friend. We have been best friends ever since we were little kids, and it was great getting to work with her on an almost daily basis.
“Any new special cases? " she whispered, leaning in close and ignoring my question. Bridgette was one of the only people that knew I was witch.
"Not lately," I said with a shake of my head.
"What are you two whispering about? " asked Charline, walking up to her cash register and getting situated.
"Oh great," moaned Bart. “You’ve really got to start giving her some days off.”
Bart was not a fan of Charline. Granted, no one really was, aside from some customers. Charline was not pleasant to work with, and didn't go out of her way to make any friends. She also seemed to not always understand that I was the owner and she was the employee.
"Just girl stuff," lied Bridgette. It apparently didn’t occur to Bridgette that Charline was al
so a woman, but maybe Charline wouldn’t press it.
"Girl stuff?," scoffed Charline. "Aren't you two getting a bit old to be whispering about boys all the time?"
"We aren't whispering about boys," I said.
"I find that unlikely, coming from you," said Charline, laughing to herself.
“What’s funny about that?” I asked defensively.
"If it isn't Detective Drake, then it’s that mysterious man with a ponytail. Why, I could have sworn I saw you chatting up a firefighter when I first walked in, to boot. Back when I was young, we had a word for ladies that spent so much time bouncing from man to man."
"Oooh, a firefighter?” cooed Bridgette.
"Don’t get excited, it was just Marvin,” I said, trying to diffuse any hope Bridgette had, as well as any judgment Charline was harboring. “There wasn't anything going on, he just invited me to some chili cook-off this afternoon."
"Oh, the Twistchapel community chili cook-off? Is it that time of year already?" asked Charline.
"I guess," I shrugged. I should really get more involved with the community if this was an on going thing. How was I so out of the loop? Probably something to look into. "You've heard of it?"
"Of course,” she nodded, nose turning up at the thought. “It's one of my least favorite events of the year."
"Why is that? I asked, sharing a look with Bridgette.
"It is held in the town square, and I live just a few blocks down from it, " said Charline, shaking her head as she thought about it. "It gets so loud there, even as late as 9 pm! Everyone there causing such a ruckus. I always call in noise complaints to the sheriff's office, but they don't do anything about it! Can you believe it? They always say it's a community sponsored event, and I should just go on down and enjoy the fun. The audacity!"
"That does sound horrible," I nodded as Bridgette giggled. Poor Charline. It must be hard to be her.
A hand grabbed my shoulder suddenly and firmly, causing me to jump a little in surprise.
"We need to talk. Privately. Now." said the owner of the hand.
I turned around to see Warren Locke, a warlock that occasionally had jobs for me. He had his blonde hair up in a ponytail, as usual, and wore his typical long coat. I didn't trust him very much, but he did have a habit of bringing me interesting cases to work on.
"Looks like I was right," said Charline, grinning at Bridgette and me.
Unfortunately, he was also the ponytailed man that Charline just mentioned.
"Can it wait? " I asked Warren, feeling my face turn a light shade of red. There was nothing between us, but he had a bad habit of making people think otherwise with how he acted. I was pretty sure he was doing it intentionally.
"It can't," he said, grabbing my hand and leading me towards my office.
"This should take only a minute," I said, looking back at the grinning Charline and the concerned Bridgette.
"Sure it will," said Charline, turning back to her register.
Warren and I walked into my office, Bart following quickly behind. I walked over to where my chair was behind my desk, and glared at Warren.
"What's your deal?" I demanded. “You’re making me look bad in front of my workers!”
Warren closed the door and glanced behind me. "Oh wow, you still haven't changed that wallpaper. It’s very distracting, you know that?"
"I'll get to it when I get to it,” I said, glancing back at the ugly 70’s floral wallpaper on the wall behind me. I always forgot it was there until a visitor pointed it out. "Charline is getting the wrong impression of you and me, and I don't want that getting back to Drake."
"My apologies, but this is something we need to discuss urgently."
"And what would that be?" asked Bart, glaring at the warlock.
"This."
The warlock snapped his fingers, and the air above my couch shimmered for a brief second. A portal opened up, dropping a soaking wet dead body onto it.
Chapter 2
“Oh,” said Bart, sniffing at the body.
I stared down at the dead woman’s body on my office couch. Inside, I was a mixture of anger, confusion, and curiosity. I decided to let it all out.
“Did you kill this woman?” I whispered harshly. “Why do you have her body? Why is it wet?”
“What? Of course I didn’t kill her,” said Warren, shaking his head. He looked almost offended. Almost. “Do you think I’d bring the body of someone I killed to show you, like a cat bringing a dead mouse to its owner? No offense, Bart.”
“None taken,” shrugged Bart.
“Why did you bring it here?” I asked
“My client needs to know why she was murdered, and who did it,” said Warren.
“And why do you need my help right this second?” I asked.
“There have been a number of murders in surrounding towns. It’s been kept mostly under wraps, but the victims appear to be random. We have no idea how they are being targeted, who the murderer is, and if or when the killer will strike again. Time is of the essence so that more people don’t die.”
I let out a sigh. That wasn’t very much to go on. It sounded like solving this could help save people in Twistchapel, though, so it was worth trying to help.
“Who is she?” I asked.
“No one knows.”
“Okay…” I said. Less than helpful. “Why did you bring her to me instead of taking us to where the body was found? There could be evidence you missed when you took the body.”
“The body was found in the middle of a lake near Ravendale,” said Warren. Great, even less helpful. “I could take us there right now if you’d like, but I figured you’d prefer this way.”
“I’m good,” I nodded, moving up past my desk to take a closer look at the body.
The woman appeared to be about my age, with blonde hair and green eyes. She had on a blue blouse and pair of jeans, along with a pair of blue flats. She didn’t have on a wedding ring or any jewelry, and there wasn’t a purse or any other valuable items.
“Maybe this was a robbery gone bad, and they dumped the body?” wondered Bart aloud, noticing the same things I did.
“Or the killer just wanted to make it more difficult to identify her,” I said, shaking my head. “If there has been a string of murders in different towns, I doubt this is just a mugging.”
The back of her head had a noticeable indent, which was probably how she was killed. Looking down at her neck, I noticed two small marks.
“Look here,” I said, pointing at them. “Is that the bite of a vampire?”
“Good eye,” said Warren, leaning down and examining it closer. “It would appear that way. How bizarre.”
“Why is that bizarre?”
“The cause of death was a blunt strike to the back of the head,” he said.
“Oh yeah… a vampire wouldn’t die from that,” I said slowly, thinking back to a past case dealing with some vampire deaths. “Plus, she wouldn’t still be here. She should’ve turned into ash if she died as a vampire. That must mean…”
“She died before she turned into one,” nodded Warren. “Interesting. Very interesting. Good job, Miss Foster. I knew you’d be able to help out.”
The phone on my desk rang out.
“Good Morning, this is Zoey,” I said, leaning over the desk and picking it up. “How can I help you?”
“Miss Foster, this is Charline, one of your cashiers.”
“Yes Charline… I’m a bit busy right now.”
“Yes, with that man in the ponytail,” said Charline. “That’s what I told Detective Drake, but he insisted he needed to talk to you after I mentioned that. I’ll just tell him tha-”
“Wait a second! Detective Drake is here?”
“Yes ma’am. He is staring at me impatiently as we speak.”
I smacked my forehead. What was Charline doing?
“Um, tell him it’ll be just a minute, but then he can come in,” I said, hanging up.
“Detective Drake is here?” smirk
ed Warren. “I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see me, as always.”
“Get rid of the body now,” I hissed. Detective Drake Robinson and I had been dating, and while we didn’t have any labels yet, things were doing very well. The second to last thing I wanted was for Drake to get paranoid about Warren and I being in my office alone. Unfortunately, the absolute last thing I wanted was for Drake to find us alone, but also with a dead body.
“Perhaps he can help us?” asked Warren. “All the normal humans speak so highly of his work.”
The door knob jiggled as Drake began opening the door. Apparently he didn’t want to wait a full minute before coming in.
“Quit playing around and just do it!” I begged the warlock.
Warren snapped his fingers again as the door opened. In an instant, the couch shimmered and became a portal, sucking the body back in. Warren fell backwards onto the couch as the portal closed and Drake entered the room.
“Impressive,” remarked Bart. I hated to admit it, but it was well done.
“Ah, Detective Drake,” smiled Warren, fully stretched out on the couch. “What a surprise. It seems like every time I visit our Zoey, you always pop up. Do you have a tracking device hidden somewhere on me?”
“Trust me, Warren,” said Drake, glaring down at the warlock. “If I was going to put a tracking device on you, you’d know it, and it wouldn’t feel good.”
“Always so aggressive, isn’t he?” asked Warren as he looked up to me.
“I don’t know why you always want to antagonize the detective,” I said, walking over and giving Drake a quick hug. Drake’s features softened as he looked down at me, a beautiful smile breaking on his lips. “How can I help you, Drake?”
“I had the day off and wanted to see what you were up to,” he said, looking around the office before his eyes fell on the couch. “Why’s the couch all wet?”
Warren shifted uncomfortably, looking at me to give him an answer.
“Oh, uh, I spilled some water earlier. It isn’t a big deal,” I said, eager to change the subject. “Do you have off for the chili cook-off?”
The Watchful Werewolf Page 1
