by Amy Boyles
A second later, in a whirlwind of leaves and wind, the skull was sucked from the doorway and disappeared into the night.
I exhaled a deep breath. Thank goodness that was taken care of.
I slammed the door and brushed my hands. Well, looked like I’d dealt with that little problem. With a skip in my step, I strode down the hallway. I’d made it almost to the kitchen when the knocking returned.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake.” Mama rushed past me. “I don’t understand why it’s so hard to get rid of whoever is out there.”
I reached for her. “Mama, don’t!”
She rolled her eyes. “Really, Charming, I don’t see what the big deal is.”
She grasped the handle. I shut my eyes tight, not wanting to deal with my mother’s wrath. I heard the door open. My stomach dropped to the floor.
“Good evening, Thorne,” Mama said with a gracious note in her voice. “What a surprise.”
Thorne? I peeked out from under one lid. There he stood, glaring at me.
I waved my phone. “Sorry. Forgot to text.”
Mama quirked a brow. “Keeping dibs on my daughter?”
“Making sure she’s safe, ma’am.”
Mama folded her arms. “She’s safe. I just don’t understand why she didn’t tell me that it was you standing here before.”
“I just arrived,” Thorne replied.
Mama shot me a smug smile. “So I guess it was a prank knocker who was here a moment ago.”
A weak smile spread across my face. “Like I said, a prankster.”
Thorne’s gaze dragged from me to Mama. “Make sure you keep the doors locked.”
“Do we have something to be worried about?” Mama said.
“As far as we know, the murderer only wanted Frankie, but you can never be too careful.”
Rose’s voice rang out behind us. “Would you like to come in, Officer? I’m sure I could whip up a treat for you in the kitchen. I don’t know what I’ve got that’s freshly killed, but if you give me a few minutes, I’m sure I could figure something out.”
Thorne dismissed her offer with a wave. “No thanks. I only wanted to check in on Charming. I’m afraid I’m needed at the station.” He nodded to each of us in turn. “Have a good night, ladies. Charming,” he said pointedly.
I grinned sheepishly. “Good night.”
Once Thorne had left, Mama smacked her lips and shot me a knowing smile. “Well, well, well. So Charming certainly means something to someone.”
“She means a lot to me,” Rose said. Pig, who’d trotted up beside Rose, grunted. “And to Pig,” Rose corrected. “Sorry, Pig.”
Pig oinked.
I rolled my eyes.
“That’s not what I mean,” Mama said. “I’m talking about Thorne. But I still don’t understand what all that knocking was about before he arrived.”
I hiked both shoulders to my ears. “No idea. Very strange.”
Her gaze grazed over me with a heavy dose of skepticism. “Of course it was nothing. I’m sure there isn’t anything you’d want to hide from me, is there?”
“No, of course not. Why would I hide anything from you?”
She clicked her tongue. “You know, that’s what I’m asking myself. Why would you?”
I shrugged noncommittally. “Well, Mama. You know as well I do that I wouldn’t.” She offered her cheek, and I kissed it. “I just wouldn’t keep anything from you. Absolutely not.”
She squinted. “That’s what I thought, Charming. That’s what I thought, too.”
Chapter 12
The next morning I moved cautiously, unsure if a floating skull would be waiting for me downstairs. I crossed my fingers that the wind had whisked that skull to the other side of the planet.
So far, so good.
“Good morning,” I said cheerily.
Rose wore a 50’s style frilly apron. Pig sat on a stool, greedily eating a slice of turkey bacon that Rose fed her.
“Good morning. Would you like a wonderful breakfast to start your day?”
“Sure,” I said, humoring her.
“Charming, is that you?” Mama said.
As if there were more than three people living in this house. “Yes, it’s me.”
“I’m so glad,” she called from the direction of the living room. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
I’d been up for over an hour. It wasn’t as if I’d slept in or anything.
“I’m in here.”
“Great.” Mama appeared in the doorway. “Maybe you can explain what this is.”
She pulled the little skull out from behind her back, holding it by the chain. I threw up my hands and screamed.
The skull burst into flames, like the darn thing was angry that I’d sent it away. Well, what did it expect, exactly? It wasn’t as if that stupid skull was about to be a normal part of my life.
Mama glared at the flames. “Looks like the skull has a bone to pick with you.”
I winced. “It was Frankie Firewalker’s.”
“Of course it was,” she said sarcastically. “Charming, how many times have I told you not to take a gift from a witch?”
“I didn’t,” I argued. “I told Frankie I didn’t want it, but she said if anything happened to her, she wanted me to have it.”
I flung my arm out. “I tried to banish it, but it came back.”
Mama raised the skull to eye level. “The question is, what do we do with it now?”
“Throw it in the ocean,” I offered.
“We don’t want to do that,” Rose said. “The last time I tried to hide a magical object in the ocean, the thing convinced a town of mermaids that it was their god.”
I stared at Rose. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Oh no, not at all. I wouldn’t have believed it myself except that one day a mermaid arrived on my doorstep and thanked me for introducing them to their new god. The magical object had told them to come find me. I’m just glad it wasn’t mad at me. Can you imagine if there’d been a war between the mer-people and witches? That would have been terrible. I imagine I would’ve had to get out my armor. Boy, has it been a long time since I’ve dusted that off.”
I couldn’t resist. “Does this armor have a small skirt?”
“Of course it does. I look exactly like Wonder Woman in it.”
Only fifty years too late, I thought. Like, a long fifty at that.
“Rose, that’s not helping,” Mama said. “We have a problem. I’m currently holding a flaming skull that wants to attach itself to Charming. If that happens, the prophecy will come true and we’ll lose all magic. It will be the end of our world as we know it. That cannot happen.”
“I tried getting rid of it, like I said, but it didn’t work. If only it could tell us how to destroy it, that would help.” I stared at the necklace. “It’s too bad the thing doesn’t speak.”
Mama’s eyes widened. “What a brilliant idea! Charming, that is a great plan.” Mama snapped her fingers. “Skull, I give you a voice. Speak and tell us what it is you want.”
The skull’s jaw unhinged. The flames didn’t die, but they didn’t flare as hot, either. The voice that came from the skull was somewhat refined.
“I’m to be Charming’s,” it said.
“Yes,” Mama said impatiently. “We know that. But how do we get rid of you?”
“You don’t.”
“I do not accept that answer,” Mama said. “Look here, Skull. You cannot be Charming’s. There is no way. You are simply not allowed by me, Glinda Calhoun. Do you understand?”
The skull’s jaw moved left and right. “But I’m—”
“No buts,” Mama said. “Now. Come up with a solution to this problem or I will personally encase you in ice and bury you so far down in Antarctica that you’ll never be able to get out.”
The skull hesitated. “There is a way.”
“That’s what I thought,” Mama said, quite proud of herself.
“If you find the person w
ho killed Frankie, I can attach myself to him and make him suffer.”
I clapped my hands. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Mama raised a palm, gesturing for me to hold my celebration. “So you mean that if we find the killer, you will haunt them?”
“Yes,” the skull said. “I won’t have fulfilled my duty to Frankie, but it will serve me to have done something to remember Frankie by.”
“Yes, she was such a winning person,” Mama said.
I rolled my eyes. “Maybe to the skull she was.”
Mama shot me a look that said she doubted that. She clapped her hands. “Wonderful. Great. Now that that’s decided, it looks like we’ve got a plan. Skull, you will stay with us, but you will not in any way attach yourself to my daughter. Meanwhile, we’ll search out who killed Frankie, even though I’m pretty sure that person has done us a service. I will still fight for justice.”
I wanted to crawl under a table. I know Mama hated Frankie, but did she have to make it so obvious around the skull?
And was I suffering from some sort of existential crisis? Worrying about an inanimate object’s feelings? Perhaps I had issues, too.
Mama eyed the skull. “Do we have a deal?”
Flames shot from its eyes. “We have a deal.”
“Great.” Relief flooded me. “Now. All we have to do is wait for Thorne to catch the killer and we’ll be good to go.”
“You have to do it,” the skull said.
Did I hear that correctly? “I’m sorry. What?”
“In order for me to transfer myself to someone else, you have to find the killer,” the skull explained. “Otherwise the deal’s off.”
Mama and Rose looked at me as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
“That should be easy enough,” Mama said.
“Thorne asked me to stay out of it,” I argued.
Mama released the chain, and the skull hovered in the air. “And when has that stopped us before?”
My stomach folded. Thorne and I were on good terms. I didn’t want to screw that up. Searching for Frankie’s killer would do that. But I also couldn’t let the skull attach itself to me. I couldn’t acquire fire power or else magic would die.
I wanted to go back to bed and start this day over. Was that an option? I had a feeling that no, it was not.
I inhaled a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll search for whoever did this.”
Mama smiled widely. “Wonderful. That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.”
“The day just started,” Rose pointed out.
“Then it can’t get any worse,” Mama added. “Let’s start discussing how to go about this investigation.”
I grabbed a cold biscuit from a plate. Pig snorted at me.
I gave her half of it. “I disagree. This day can get much worse. I’m already up a creek with Thorne. Hopefully he won’t find out I’m about to go behind his back.”
I crossed my fingers, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t be enough. I needed all the pixie dust and luck the world offered. Even that might not be enough to shield me from Thorne’s wrath if he discovered what we were up to.
“Charming, it will all be fine,” Mama said. “Now. Where should we start?”
“I don’t think the three of us should start gallivanting around town asking questions. I’ll head into the mayor’s office, see what she’s thinking. We go from there.”
Mama nodded. “Sounds perfect.”
I started to leave, and the skull drifted toward me. Broom, which had been standing in the corner, shot forward and swatted its bristled head at the skull.
Skull shot fire at Broom, and the flammable object cowered.
I flared my arms. “Broom. Skull. Stop it.”
Broom backed away slowly. I sighed and shook my head at Mama. “Are you keeping the skull with you?”
“I will as long as you keep Broom.”
I thumbed toward the front door. “Come on, Broom. You can help me investigate on the sly.”
Broom hopped across the kitchen floor, making sure to keep a wide berth when it came to Skull. I shook my head. How did I end up with a houseful of objects that wanted to fight? How did I end up with such bad luck?
Broom and I arrived at the mayor’s to a flurry of phones ringing.
“Mayor Dixon’s office, please hold,” India said. She shot me a harried look, frowned at Broom and pointed to the mayor’s door. “She’s been asking about you. I just haven’t had a chance to call. Go on in.”
I brushed past India’s desk and found the mayor with her face flat on her desk.
I gently rapped on the open door. “Mayor Dixon, are you okay?”
She inhaled deeply and sat up. “Oh, Charming. Yes, just trying to stop myself from having a meltdown. Come on in and bring your broom with you.”
“How’s the fallout from the show being handled?”
The mayor shrugged. “The PR company is doing the best they can, but I’m afraid to say I doubt anyone will want to be a contestant. Thorne and his men are working on the case and I want to know what they’re up to, but Thorne is keeping this one quiet.”
I cocked a brow. “What do you mean?”
“He says because of the nature of the crime, since it was broadcast and so many people are aware of it, that he won’t tell me what he’s found.”
The mayor eyed me for a moment. Her gaze, which had been vacant, suddenly shifted, sharpening on me. An idea glittered in her mind.
Y’all, it was obvious. The mayor transformed from a lump of doughy coal into a shark with me stationed directly in her path.
“That is, unless you can get close to him.”
“I’m sorry?”
The mayor licked her lips. “Charming, I need you to find out who he’s investigating.”
“Mayor, I didn’t come here for that. I came to see—”
“But Witch’s Forge needs you. Charming, I need you. Might I remind you that you have a contract with this town.”
I groaned. “Of course I remember.”
“I need you to buck up, discover what you can about what Thorne’s doing. Who he’s investigating. How else am I supposed to deal with the fallout of a woman being murdered on live television if I don’t know what’s going on with my police chief?”
The mayor wanted intelligence. I wanted intelligence. As much as I hated to go behind Thorne’s back, the whole skull scenario pretty much screwed that up for me.
“Okay, Mayor. I’ll do what I can. First though, I need to know what you know.”
She shook her head. “Nothing. But I have it on good authority that if you want to talk to someone who might have a clue—and I know you do—first start with Vic Blass.”
“The host?” How could he know anything?
“Mmm hmm.” The mayor flipped through a Rolodex on her desk. “Vic was there. I haven’t spoken to him, but he was close with Frankie. They were old friends.”
She pulled a card from the circle and handed it to me. “That’s his number. I’m sure he’ll want to help.”
I studied the card. Vic and Frankie had been close, but was it all a lie? Had Vic been the killer?
Only one way to find out. I stuffed the card in my pocket and rose. “Thank you, Mayor. I’ll get right on it.”
Chapter 13
“Are you sure you don’t want a chair for the broom?”
Vic and I sat at a restaurant in downtown Witch’s Forge. He looked terrible. His normally perfectly coiffed hair was messed, and he had dark circles under his eyes.
I glanced at Broom. It stood just beside the table, turning right and left as people passed by. The thing seemed more jittery than normal. It was quite distracting.
“Broom, can you go stand over there, in the corner?”
Broom pivoted in the direction I pointed, which was at a server’s station where pitchers of water sat out and coffee warmed on burners. It took a moment, but the broom eventually hopped off in that direction.
“Sorry,” I said to Vic. �
�It’s with me today, and it doesn’t get out much.”
Vic raked trembling fingers through his hair. “No big deal. So. You wanted to talk about Frankie.”
I picked at my strawberry pretzel salad. I’d skipped lunch and gone straight to dessert. “Yes. Do you know of anyone here in Witch’s Forge who might have reason to want her dead?”
“Well, I would, for one.”
I stared at him. “I’m sorry?”
Vic smiled. “She broke my heart, you know, but that was years ago.” He waved a hand dismissively. “It’s not a big deal, really. But I fell hard for Frankie. She didn’t like me, not like I liked her. So it ended. That’s how these things go.”
He shrugged his shoulders as if it was all in the past, a distant memory.
“Do you know of anyone else who might have had a bone to pick with her?”
Vic considered the question. He leaned back, draping an elbow over his chair. “I believe Tex’s family had a connection to Frankie. I think I heard somewhere that she was married to his uncle.”
My eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“I believe so. And Watts, now there’s an interesting fellow. From what I understand, his was a recent move to Witch’s Forge. Really recent, if you know what I mean.”
I cocked a brow. “You’re saying he might have known Frankie was going to come here?”
Vic hiked a shoulder. “It’s possible.”
It seemed like a huge coincidence for Watts to have moved to Witch’s Forge right before Frankie showed up. He did pop up as one of her possible soul mates. But was that somehow planned?
Impossible. I’d never known of such a thing to happen.
“And then there’s your mother,” Vic added.
I bristled. “My mother?”
He jabbed a cherry tomato with a fork and popped it in his mouth. “It was widely said that the falling out between your mother and Frankie Firewalker was epic.”
“According to my mother, all that’s in the past.”
Vic arched a brow. “Maybe. Maybe not. Every time I saw your mom, she was shooting daggers from her eyes to Frankie.”
“That’s a little over-the-top, don’t you think?”
