Moonshine and Manslaughter

by Ellie Moses

  Granny shook her head and handed me my mug of tea. “Drink up, sweetpea. We’ve got some bones to chew while the family’s all here. Sheriff Quinn had questions about Sissy Prather’s whereabouts.”

  “Didn’t ya’ll work out a story with Deputy Carter last night?” Billy Jack asked as he swiped one of his mama’s cookies from my plate.

  “I was preoccupied with seeing that Jolene made it to the couch under her own power. She was weak as a newborn kitten even though I slipped her summoning stone in her pocket.” Granny’s confession startled me out of my cozy nest on her couch.

  I stood up, forgetting the plate of cookies on my lap. Granny gave a crinkle of her nose and the plate stopped mid-air and reversed its flight to end up on the table.

  Reaching into one pocket, I came up empty and sat my mug of tea on the table. Slowly, I went into the other pocket. My heart raced as I grasped the smooth surface. Little zings of magick sparked as I pulled it out and opened my palm.

  Looking to Granny, I fell speechless. All the questions in my mind came down to this stone. Something I’d found at the scene of a murder. Even though my cousin wasn’t guilty, a man had lost his life there.

  I turned it over in my hand, searching for the place where the sliver had joined itself as I fought Sissy. “I don’t know how the sliver ended up in my pocket last night.”

  “It’s whole now, Jolene, like you. The two pieces couldn’t stay apart for much longer when Sissy showed up. It’s a darned good thing you were stronger and took it from her.” Granny looked down at her hands which twisted nervously in her lap.

  “What exactly does that mean? Was there doubt about whether I would win?” I asked, closing my hand protectively over the stone. I felt a connection to it that rivaled my connection to Delilah.

  Aunt Dixie sat in the chair beside Ray and put her pocketbook on the floor. “It means such a powerful piece of magick will not tolerate being less than whole. It would have found its way to you even if Sissy hadn’t come out here shootin’ up the place. She was bound to war with you over it since she wanted its power for herself. But you won out. Even if that win was painful.”

  Billy Jack stole another cookie and chewed it thoughtfully for a moment. “It sure is good to be out of the pokey. You wanna go walk a circuit in the woods with me and make sure your wards are still up, Jo?”

  Placing my summoning stone back in my pocket, I shrugged. The idea that the powerful stone belonged to me still amazed me. My brain was having trouble taking it in. That and the fact that I had taken a life still haunted me. A little fresh air might be just the thing I needed.

  “Before the two of you high tail it out of here, the story is Sissy took off when Deputy Carter tackled Luke to take his pistol. Nary a one of us interfered. Is that clear?” Granny Mack looked to each of us in turn to make sure we all agreed.

  Billy Jack slapped his leg and let out a belly laugh. “Sheriff Quinn is gonna catch on to us one of these days. And Deputy Carter throwed in with our lot last night, now if that ain’t belling the cat I don’t know what is!”

  Aunt Dixie got up and swatted at her son. “Hush up boy! He ain’t our enemy and one day soon he might be sheriff. Best stay on his good side and not go talking him down when he helped your kinfolk take care of the ones that set you up.”

  You could have knocked me over with a feather! I’d never seen Aunt Dixie scold Billy Jack for his attitude towards the law before. Things were changing in Devil’s Elbow.

  “Not everything,” Ray whispered in my ear as he came to stand behind me. I laughed because he could still read my mind. The subtle touch of his arms around me as Delilah mewled at my feet gave me comfort in the knowledge that no matter what, some things, like the love of my family, never changed.

  Author’s Note

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read about Jolene and her hillbilly friends and neighbors! I know the use of Smoky Mountain English might have been difficult for my readers but it’s how my people speak.

  I hope you’ve enjoyed your time in Devil’s Elbow and invite you to read more in the series as soon as they are available. I’ve written a short for Halloween 2019, Peril in the Pumpkin Patch, and would like to offer you the first two chapters free right here, right now. You can purchase the entire short on Amazon. Don’t you just love the cover? Me too!

  Chapter 1

  “I ain’t got a man to go to the haunted house with Jolene!” PJ pouted and stomped one of her high-heeled feet.

  I’d closed up my second-hand shop, The Value Vintage, and moseyed down to my best friend’s beauty shop to see if she wanted to go out to Bubba Trimble’s pumpkin patch over in Arjay with me come Friday night. “I don’t have a man either,” I said, “so to speak.”

  “You have Ray.” She tapped her toe and crossed her arms, her pout growing worse by the minute.

  I ignored her mention of my dead, but not quite yet departed, boyfriend for a moment to tease her. “If your face freezes that way, you’ll never get a man Paisley James,” I tried first and middle naming her to get her out of her mood. When that didn’t work, I resorted to whining. “Bonita is out of town and Ray don’t believe in haunted houses and Halloween. Says it’s a silly stereotype.”

  That last one got her goat. Her pout disappeared as she stared at me. “Now what kind of sense does that make? Halloween is practically his holy day now that he’s joined the spectral throng.”

  “You know how he feels about being a ghost. Besides, I need someone to scream with and push me through the danged thing before the monsters get me. There might be some hunks there, you never know.” I smiled and helped her sweep up, trying my best to persuade her to my way of thinking. She was always on the lookout for a good-looking man.

  PJ held the dustpan while I swept up the stray hair from her last customer. “My cousin Arlene did say there was ‘sposed to be some smokejumpers coming up from Tennessee this weekend to see the new fire station in Arjay. I’ll go, but you owe me one Jolene Baker.”

  Laughing, I twined my arm in hers after we finished sweeping up. “Come on over to Kudzu’s and we’ll have supper together. My treat.”

  She pulled her arm free of mine and touched her amazingly perfect beehive hairdo. “Okay, sugar. Just give me a minute to change my top in back and freshen my lipstick.”

  I was so pleased to have at least one of my best girlfriends agree to come with me for a fright night out. Which was funny when you considered we were real witches and the shenanigans at Bubba’s pumpkin patch extravaganza were put on by mortals.

  When she was ready at last, we stepped out into the cool, brisk air of a fall evening. I shivered a little, but more from excitement than from the cold.

  “You act like a kid in a candy store this time of year, hon. Halloween is your time to shine, I reckon.”

  I nodded eagerly. “I put up my spooky decorations in the front window of the Value Vintage right before I came to see you. It’s fixin’ to be a Halloween we won’t forget.”

  PJ snorted. “I reckon it will and the folks around these parts are thinking of making you mayor for your idea about a Town Square trick or treat event for the kids. I don’t know why we never did it before. I’m thinking of going full witch with a cauldron and all set up in the salon. What you think about that, sugar?”

  She was getting into the spirit of Halloween. “That’d be wonderful for the kids! Just be careful not to hex anyone. I was going to dress up as Dolly, but I pretty much look like her every day anyway.”

  “You do! I know, why not be a ghost, you know, with the sheet and all? Ray would die all over again!”

  I lost her to a fit of giggles but considered her suggestion. I didn’t think it would offend Ray, but I wanted something more dramatic, like the Bride of Frankenstein. “Someone probably already thought of it, it’s so simple. Like old man Fugate. He didn’t seem too happy about the event at the town hall meeting Thursday last.”

  “He’s that way about everything, you know that. I say we
go around and make a roster for who’s gonna be what. Oooh, I think Floyd and Zeke ought to be Thing 1 and Thing 2!”

  That was a pretty good idea for the two of them. “Since it was my idea, I’ll go around tomorrow first thing before I open up the shop. You never know when someone might need some inspiration.”

  We walked into Kudzu’s and ordered some chicken fried steak and mashed taters with gravy. “I better have half a portion,” PJ told the waitress, “I don’t want to stretch out my Elvira costume on Halloween.”

  PJ picked me up outside Value Vintage two nights later. I’d fed Delilah, my familiar, and kissed Ray’s gossamer cheek before making my way downstairs. I’d ditched my favorite maxi skirt for black corduroy pants and snazzy black high tops for running through the haunted house.

  My girlfriend had on a silky top and them palazzo pants with a duster and strappy sandals. Her heels had to be every bit of six inches and I shook my head in amazement. PJ could totter around on them just fine but I doubted she’d be much good at running. I smiled and gave her the once over as I climbed in the passenger seat. “Ain’t you as pretty as a peach!”

  She fluffed her mile-high beehive ‘do and blushed. “Why this little old outfit? I’ve had it for ages.”

  Funny thing was, I’d never seen her in it. I was sure she’d gone over to that outlet mall and got those fancy duds just for our witches night out. PJ was a fashion plate and she was on the lookout for a feller, so I zipped my lip.

  “How’d it go when you went around askin’ who was gonna be what for the Town Square trick or treating hoedown?”

  I rolled my eyes and buckled my seatbelt as PJ pulled away from the curb. Her purple Dodge Charger with the green racing stripe was loud in the quiet streets of Devil’s Elbow. “Old man Fugate did put himself down to dress up as a ghost! Can you believe it? I called it the other night, didn’t I?”

  “Sugar, you know that old stick in the mud better’n any of us, I’d say. Was a time we all thought he might become your Papaw if you recall.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Granny Mack wasn’t never interested in him that way, and you know it! He couldn’t catch a clue if it whacked him over the head. Stubborn old mule.”

  “Now, Jolene, don’t go getting all bent outta shape. I was just teasing you. Granny Mack ain’t about to take in any old billy goat at her age. ‘Specially not one as ornery as Mr. Fugate.”

  We rode with the windows down and despite having a fast car like the Charger, PJ kept the needle below 45. She didn’t have a lead foot and I suspected she drove so slow cause she didn’t like the wind in her hair.

  The trip to Arjay took less than half an hour and by the time we got there, we were ready for some scary good times. PJ had blasted a Halloween mix-tape she’d made that I loved. She wasn’t fooling me one bit, she liked this time of year just as much as I did.

  The pumpkin patch wasn’t too crowded yet, but there were still plenty of people around. Bubba had set up strings of lights everywhere; purples, greens, and yellow. I felt my heart racing with excitement when I spotted the haunted house.

  It was an old farmhouse, one that Bubba had grown up in but that had gone downhill since he built a ranch house for his new wife a few years back. In fact, it was her idea to turn the old homestead into a haunted house to help bring in cash.

  I had to give it to Amanda Trimble. The house was decorated perfectly with sparkly cobwebs in all the windows lighted by purple strobe lights. The soundtrack they played to add to the whole effect sounded across the pumpkin patch.

  “Hey Jolene! Hey PJ!” Amanda called as we approached the entrance.

  “Hey girl!” PJ purred warmly and handed over the cash to pay our way inside. Amanda inked her hand with a fat orange pumpkin and I lifted mine for the same treatment. I felt like a kid in a candy store with a fat coin purse.

  “Hey Amanda,” I blew on the wet, orange ink on top of my hand, “you’ve outdone yourself, girlfriend! I’m amazed at how good the house looks!”

  She blushed and came from behind the counter. Her cousin Sabrina, a high school senior who came into my shop for her homecoming dress last week, stepped up to take Amanda’s place at the cash box. “Let me walk you over and show you the front porch, it’s a scream!”

  I laughed at her horrible pun and grabbed PJ’s arm. “It’s gonna be the best haunted house ever.”

  Amanda beamed with pride. “Just you wait, Jolene. When you come out the back, there’s tables set up for hot cocoa and pumpkin pie. And a trio of hot smokejumpers just went inside.”

  PJ pulled me forward, eager to catch up to the men. “We can see all the decorations out front later, Amanda.”

  We laughed and PJ moved like a running back through the gravestones and other decorations set up in the front yard. I might have been wrong about her ability to get a move on in those towering heels of hers.

  Also by Ellie Moses

  The Hillbilly Hexes Series

  Moonshine and Manslaughter

  Huckleberries and Homicide

  The Kudzu Killer

  Peril in the Pumpkin Patch (Halloween short novella)

  About the Author

  Ellie Moses loves magic and mystery and hails from the hills and hollows of Appalachia. Her favorite TV shows growing up were The Beverly Hillbillies and Bewitched. It’s no wonder she aims to keep the fun and magic of those two childhood favorites alive in her Hillbilly Hexes cozy mystery series.

  You may contact Ellie on her Facebook page using the icon below or email her at authorelliemoses@gmail.com. Her website is elliemoses.com and you may sign up for her newsletter there, just scroll down the page and fill in the pop-up that appears. To join her reader group on Facebook, follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2487426861547026