“Husband?” Suit asked.
“Cousin,” Owen supplied. “But never mind about her. I don’t see how you know Louella was poisoned, and if she was, just what, exactly, is your concern in this case?”
Issy shot a surprised glance at Owen. Today he almost looked official in a tan shirt and brown pants. It was quite a far cry from his usual Hawaiian shirts. And he was acting as if he really cared that the FBI was sticking their nose in—normally he would have shrugged and driven to the ocean to surf, or gone out on the lake paddleboarding or water skiing. Was Owen getting serious about his sheriff job? She certainly hoped not.
Dee Dee joined them, pushing past Issy to stand with her back against the wall. Issy noticed she avoided looking at Gray. She seemed almost embarrassed. Issy hoped she wasn't feeling bad that she hadn't been able to warn them ahead of time about the FBPI.
“We have our ways,” Dex said. Since the only guest chair in the room was occupied by Black Suit, Dex leaned against the wall next to Issy. She could feel his warm energy, and it was annoying, so she moved away, noticing an amused gleam in his eye as she did.
Black Suit consulted the small notepad in his hand. “We were tipped off to the suspicious poisoning. We checked with your medical examiner last night, and she concurred Louella Drummond was poisoned. Calcium oxalate.”
“And this is a matter for the FBI why?” Owen asked.
Suit snapped his notebook shut. “That’s on a need-to-know basis.”
“Why do you have Gray here?” Issy asked.
“The victim had threatened Mr. Quinn shortly before her death.”
“But I was across the street in my hairdresser salon, elbow deep in a perm when she died,” Gray pointed out.
Suit looked over the rims of his sunglasses at Gray. Yep, his eyes were black and beady, just as Issy had suspected. And suspicious. “So you say.”
“There were witnesses. I was standing right there!” Issy said.
Suit turned to look at her, taking the aviator shades off. His beady eyes drilled into her as if he knew exactly what she was about. “So, you’re the pet store owner? You were standing right next to her when she died, and from what I heard she was also threatening you. Something about a poisonous frog?”
Issy crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t think I killed her right in front of my own store, do you? That was just an idle threat. There is no poisonous frog in my shop, and furthermore, the board of health inspector was standing right there. She would’ve seen if I poisoned her.”
Suit didn’t look convinced, but Dex cut in. “We’re not accusing anyone of anything. We’re simply following all the leads that we have. Is there anything you guys know about this?”
He looked sincere, sympathetic almost, but Issy knew the real reason he was here. They’d been tipped off that Louella’s death was by paranormal means, and they were here to nail someone for it. Dex Nolan might have kind eyes and a hot body, but he was the enemy. She needed to tread carefully with these guys in town.
Suit's phone pinged, and panic jolted through her. Louella’s phone! It likely had that picture of Gray in the woods during the full-moon ritual, and if the FBPI got a hold of that…
“So what is this, some kind of a serial poisoning?” Owen asked. “You guys don’t just come out for regular murders.”
Everyone’s focus snapped to Owen. Issy, Dee Dee, Gray, and the FBPI knew Louella’s death wasn’t a poisoning, but they had to keep up appearances. Dex and Suit exchanged a glance.
“Yes, that’s right,” Suit said.
“Hmmm… We haven’t had another murder like this, and I haven’t read of any, so the other, similar murders must have been far from here. I doubt it is anyone that lives in Silver Hollow.” Owen leaned across the desk, a look of protective determination in his eye. “And if you guys think you’re going to go around accusing the citizens of Silver Hollow, then you have another thing coming. This is still my town, and I’m going to investigate this case right along with you.”
Suit opened his mouth to speak, but Dex cut in before he could spit out the smart-aleck remark that Issy imagined was on his tongue. “That’s fine. Just don’t get in our way. We can use all the help we can get.”
Owen seemed mollified. “Well, good, then. Are we done with Mr. Quinn?”
“I suppose so.” Suit shoved his notebook into his pocket, stood, and turned to Issy. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Quinn.”
“Miss.”
“Stanley Judge.” He announced his name as if she should be impressed. Issy was relieved he didn't offer his hand. It was probably cold and clammy. She thought she saw Dex’s sensual lips quirk.
“I’ll let you know when my team is done with Louella’s personal effects,” Owen said importantly.
Relief flooded through Issy. Owen had her personal effects, which meant they were in the police station somewhere, and Dee Dee would have access to them. She already knew to erase Gray’s pictures from the phone, but Issy figured it couldn’t hurt to send her one last text just to be sure.
Issy was the first one out of the office. She was eager to get back to her pet store. Back to where she felt safe and secure. Where she could forget about dark magic, government entities that wanted to harm paranormals, and good-looking enemies like Dex Nolan for a few hours, at least.
The Crown Victoria had been sitting in the hot summer sun for a few hours, so the inside was steaming and smelled of hot vinyl. Dex sat in the driver’s seat, windows open, air conditioning blasting. The steering wheel was too hot to touch.
"She can cast a spell on me anytime.” Stan Judge leaned forward to look past Dex at Issy Quinn and her cousin, who stood talking in the parking lot.
Dex felt a jolt of alarm. “You think she’s a witch?”
Stan shrugged. “I hear this town is loaded with them. She might be one. She certainly is bewitching.”
Dex slid his eyes back over to the woman. He didn’t know about bewitching, but she sure was cute. With that curly strawberry-blond hair bobbing around her head and big sea-green eyes a guy could get lost in. And those long legs that could… well, no sense in thinking about that. He wasn’t here to get involved with a woman.
Why was he here?
The truth was, Dex didn’t even believe in witches and paranormals. And even if there were such a thing, he certainly wouldn’t want to capture them and do whatever it was the FBI did to them, as his boss, Stan, wanted. Stan seemed to have some kind of vendetta against these mythical beings.
The truth was, Dex hadn’t had much choice but to take the job with the FBPI. It was the only job in the bureau where it might not happen again. He couldn’t risk failing to protect someone ever again. At least here he knew all the cases he went on would end up with no harm done. In this job, no one would die on his watch. The FBPI didn’t have a very good track record of capturing their quarry.
“So what do you think? You think she did it?” Stan asked.
Dex jerked his eyes back to his partner, feeling oddly protective of Issy. “No way. She’s no killer.”
“The victim was threatening to expose some sort of poisonous frog. A frog that magically was no longer there when she brought in the board of health. And not only that, the victim threatened the woman’s cousin.”
Dex frowned. “We don’t know whether there really was a frog. For all we know, the victim was loopy. She sounds like she had some kind of crazy vendetta against them, and we don’t know what she even had on the cousin.”
“That’s right. Which reminds me. We have to work around this hick sheriff now. That Lottie woman said it was a photograph that the victim probably had on her cell phone. But we have to play nice with the guy and let him look at the stuff first. We better stick close by, though. Let’s pick up some coffee and donuts and then come back. Hopefully he’ll be willing to let us look at her phone and other personal effects by then.”
“Okay. Good idea.” Dex couldn’t imagine what the woman could possibly have on her phone against t
he guy. He found himself hoping it wasn’t anything paranormal. Well, of course it wouldn’t be, because there was no such thing. As they pulled out of the parking lot, his eyes drifted over to Issy, now getting into an old, beat-up brown Toyota pickup truck. If she were a witch, wouldn’t she just conjure herself up a better vehicle?
He was a pretty good investigator, and he could sniff out a killer at twenty paces. And he knew that woman was no killer. He didn’t think she was a witch either, although she was quite charming.
But even though Dex didn’t suspect her of any wrongdoing, it wouldn’t be a hardship to keep Issy Quinn under close surveillance.
6
Issy texted her cousins as soon as she got back to the store, alerting them to the fact that the FBPI were in town. The one guy, Stan, seemed like a hard ass, but her insides got all mushy when she thought about the other one. He had kind eyes, and she had a hard time picturing him persecuting a paranormal. But maybe that was what made him so effective. Maybe he was one of those guys that seemed like your friend and then turned on you at the last minute. Best to stay away from him.
The cousins had made plans to meet at Issy’s cottage by the edge of the lake later that night to discuss the new developments. Now, more than ever, they had to find the real killer, especially if the FBPI had Gray—and possibly her—on their radar.
She picked up a pizza on the way home. Pepperoni, onion, and green pepper, the way they all liked it. She was setting out plates on her antique pine dining table when her cousins arrived almost simultaneously.
Brimstone walked in the door first. He cast a glance at the pizza, turned his nose up, and trotted over toward the cupboard where she kept the animal treats. Bella noticed and rushed over, too, leaping and jumping so as not to be left out.
“Smells delicious.” Gray came through the door with Cosmo perched on his shoulder.
Cosmo spread his wings. “Awk. Delicious,” he said in his high-pitched parrot voice and then flew up to his usual perch on top of Issy’s white-painted cabinets.
“Bloody arrogant creature thinking he should be above us,” Brimstone muttered, a wary eye turned upward toward Cosmo.
“What was that?” Ember came to the door, the two kittens peeking out from the caldron-shaped kitten-toy tote bag hanging from her elbow.
Brimstone’s golden-orange eyes widened in alarm when he saw Bellatrix and Endora. The kittens loved trying to get him to play, but he considered himself too dignified for that. “I think there’s some chipmunks out there that need chasing.” He trotted into the next room, and the next thing Issy knew he was outside. She had no idea how he’d actually gotten out there, but closed doors never seemed to be a problem for him.
Bella, on the other hand, loved the kittens, and the three of them took off in a frolicking furry ball, rolling around the living room as the cousins settled in around the table.
“Geez, Gray, I was half afraid the FBPI were going to cart you away,” Ember said.
Gray dug into a slice of pizza, seemingly unconcerned. “They just asked me a few questions. They don’t have anything on me.”
“What about those pictures Louella had?” Raine picked a pepperoni off the pizza and popped it into her mouth.
“Dee Dee said she’d take care of it,” Gray said.
“Yeah, but what if she gets busy or something happens and she can’t get the cell phone?” Issy asked.
Gray focused on his pizza, avoiding his cousin’s gaze. “She’ll do it. She owes me.”
Issy’s left brow ticked up. “Really? For what?”
“None of your business. We can trust her. You guys know that,” Gray said.
“Awwk… private business.” Cosmo stretched his neck out and tilted his head, looking at them with one eye from atop the cabinet.
“Okay. Let’s not worry about that now. There’s nothing we can do, and Dee Dee is going to text me when she gets the camera so we’ll know for sure.” Issy folded her wedge of pizza and tilted it to let the grease drip off onto her plate. “We need to step up our game now with the FBPI here.”
“Right,” Ember said. “So what did the FBPI ask you? What do you think they know? Who tipped them off?”
Issy sighed and looked out past her shabby-chic living room, with the white and rose-covered overstuffed sofas, through the double sliding glass doors, to the calm, serene blue waters of the lake. Here, in her cottage, surrounded by things she loved, she always felt the safest. The view of the small sandy beach, crystal-clear lake, and distant mountains framed by the long boughs of tall pine trees always soothed her. But tonight she had a restless energy. She could feel something was about to happen. “From what I heard, it seemed like they didn’t have very much to go on. Did they say anything to you before I got there, Gray?”
Gray shook his head. Leaning back in his chair, he crossed his arms over his chest, the bottom of the shamrock tattoo peering out from under the sleeve of his shirt. He looked tired and worn, though he was putting up a good front that he wasn’t worried. “They didn’t say much of anything. Though now we’ve got two issues, because Owen thinks this was a poisoning, and it appears as if he’s going to be looking for the killer.”
“Poisoning?” Ember asked.
“That’s what Ursula put on the medical report. Apparently the FBPI showed up at her office, so she couldn’t rule it a heart attack,” Issy said.
“Dang, well, that complicates things.” Ember picked another toy out of the caldron and threw it into the living room to amuse the kittens and Bella.
“No kidding. Especially since I might be a suspect along with Gray,” Issy said.
“But Owen wouldn’t think that you guys would kill anyone. He knows you guys.” Raine twisted her mouth sideways. “What kind of poison did Ursula say it was?”
“Calcite something or calcium something…”
“Calcium oxalate?”
“Yes, that’s it!” Issy and Gray said at the same time. Issy’s spirits fell even further at the look on her cousin’s face.
“That’s too bad. That can come from many sources, including the jack-in-the-pulpit plant, which is kind of rare, but I happen to have planted a few around town.”
“Oh great, so now you’re going to be a suspect too?” Ember asked. “Next we’ll find out the poison was inside one of my chocolates, and my head will be on the chopping block too.”
“That kind of poisoning can cause a swollen tongue. I don’t think it turns the tongue blue, but I guess Owen probably won’t catch on to that,” Raine said.
“All the more reason for us to find who is behind this on our own. What did you guys find out when you went to talk to Hans?” Gray asked.
“Not much. I don’t think he’s a witch,” Issy said. “I didn’t get any vibe. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a witch do his bidding. Or he could be cleverly masking his paranormal energy. We brought Mortimer along and put him in the office, so if any paranormal business is discussed, we’ll soon find out.”
“What about Louella’s finances? Did she have any relatives salivating to get at her money?” Issy asked.
Gray shook his head. “Nope. She didn’t have any money or any relatives. Not even a life-insurance policy. She did have a will, and she left everything to the Silver Hollow Reptile Society, but from the information I got, there will barely be enough to bury her, so they aren’t going to get much.”
“Silver Hollow has a reptile society?” Ember asked.
Gray shrugged. “Guess so.”
“Well, I guess that’s at least one less thing to investigate,” Raine said.
“And so what we do until then?” Ember ripped off a piece of pizza crust and folded it in her mouth. “Just sit around and wait for one of them to come get us?” The last few words came out in a jumbled mumble as she talked around the thick, doughy crust, but Issy knew what she’d said.
“No. We don’t have to just sit around. We got another lead from Hans.”
“That’s right,” Raine added. �
��When we talked to him, he said he wouldn’t kill Louella—he would just buy her out. I don’t know if he was working on buying Louella. She doesn't seem like the type that could be bought, but he implied that he would buy out the abutting neighbors.”
Ember’s face lit up. “Oh, I didn’t think of that. That parcel of land that’s going to be rezoned doesn’t have a lot of frontage, but if he bought the Vonners’ place, he’d be able to have much better access to the strip mall.”
“Which means Fred Vonner would likely stand to make a lot of money from Hans,” Gray said.
“But not if the rezoning doesn’t happen,” Raine pointed out.
“Exactly. So if Hans isn’t a paranormal and he did have a witch do his bidding, maybe that witch is Vonner.”
“Vonner? I don’t know him at all. Do you think he is a witch?” Ember asked.
“Don’t know, but I know one way to find out,” Issy said. “I’m going to pay him a visit tomorrow. Who wants to come with me?”
7
The next day, Issy parked Brown Betty at the end of the long dirt driveway leading up to the home of Fred and Judith Vonner. Ember was with her this time, as Raine was out on another landscaping job on the other side of Silver Hollow and couldn’t make it back in time. Ember had closed up her chocolate shop, Divine Cravings, while Issy had left her trusty shop assistant in charge of Enchanted Pets, feigning her usual excuse of a late lunch with her cousin.
“Wow, this land is really lovely,” Ember said as they started up the drive. Wildflowers grew all along the front edge of woods abutting the property and along the back of the old Victorian-style house. Black shutters highlighted the many windows, and the front lawn was lush and, from the smell of fresh-cut grass, newly mowed. As they climbed the steps up to the wraparound porch, Issy noticed hanging baskets of purple, pink, and white pansies lining the space. All in all, a well-kept property, not your typical murderer’s lair. Then again, looks could be deceiving.
A Spell Of Trouble (Silver Hollow Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) Page 4
