Murder of the Month

by Tegan Maher

  “Doing what?” I asked, smiling sweetly.

  Millie glowered at me and pointed a finger tipped in a long, bedazzled orange nail at me. “I’ve heard the rumors about your freaky family. Stop it, right now.” She turned to Hunter. “Make her stop.”

  “Stop what?” Hunter asked, and I swear the man could have won an Academy award. His expression was puzzled, bordering on concerned. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “She’s feelin’ better than she’s gonna be in a minute if she doesn’t answer your question,” Ida said, then started moaning. She was gonna have to work on that part because she sounded more like the ghost on the BooBerry commercial than anything from a horror flick, but it was enough to freak Millie out.

  “Okay,” she said, covering her head and looking around, frantically trying to see where the disembodied voice was coming from. “I wanted to sell this place and get the hell out of this craphole for good. I didn’t want to live here when I was young, and I sure don’t want to live here now. Dan Greene approached us as soon as Ida died with an offer that included a lot of zeros.”

  Dan Greene, the slimy real estate broker who lived in Hank’s pocket.

  “You lied and said you were in Atlanta,” I said. “But somebody saw you in town the morning Ida was killed.”

  I’d forgotten to tell Hunter that, so two sets of eyes swiveled to me, surprised. Hunter’s look turned to annoyance, but Ida wasn’t surprised. I could see the wheels turning, though.

  “That’s right,” Ida said to just us, anger slipping into her voice as her form flickered a little. “They came to see me to try to convince me to sell. Once I met her, I decided I wanted to keep the place after all rather than give her a dime of it.”

  Apparently, she’d cloaked her voice and was just talking to Hunter and me because Millie’s expression didn’t change.

  “We were out on his boat,” Millie lied. “We just didn’t want anybody to think we had anything to do with it.”

  Ida passed her hand through her head. Millie shuddered.

  “Try again,” Ida said, and this time, Millie must have heard her.

  “W-we came to convince Ida to sell the place,” she finally admitted.

  “That’s better,” I said. “Now, why would you do a thing like that?”

  “Some company contacted Felix with an offer,” she said, running her hand up and down her arm and sidestepping as Ida poked her. “Felix didn’t want to sell, said Ida’d never go for it now that he was remarried, but it was my chance to get out of here and he does what I say.” She crossed her arms, a defiant expression settling on her face as she raised her voice and looked around, addressing Ida. “No matter what a dead old hag thinks about it.”

  Unbeknownst to her, Felix had entered the living room from the kitchen and was leaning against the doorway between the two rooms.

  “Lord Almighty,” Ida said. “I’ve called Felix just about every name in the book over the last thirty years, but never once did I call him whipped. It was one of his more endearing traits. He’d always stand up to me.” She rubbed her chin and stared appraisingly at her ex. “I wonder what changed, aside from the fact that he obviously went color-blind.”

  Felix scowled at her. “What changed is I got old and don’t have two nickels to rub together; you saw to that. She’s about the best I can do with what I got.”

  I was surprised when Ida’s translucent cheeks turned pink and she turned to him. I was dying to hear what she had to say to that, but Millie interrupted her by wheeling on Felix. “I don’t know what’s going on here for sure,” she sneered at him, “but if you were just talkin’ about me, you got it all wrong! You’re lucky to have me. If it weren’t for that fancy boat and this house, I’da never gave you a second look. Now, go get the rest of the paint out of the truck so’s I can turn this dump into somethin’ somebody’ll actually pay to live in. The sooner we’re outta this town, and the more cash we have in our pockets, the better.”

  Felix took a couple steps toward the door, and Ida watched him, her gaze speculative. “I know I was hard on you,” she said softly, “and you’re right—I took you to the cleaners. Pick your ears, because I’m only gonna say this once. I was wrong and I’m sorry. You can do better than this, though, and Rose is gonna need you. You’re all she has left.”

  He stopped in his tracks when she spoke, then stood frozen for a couple moments after Ida said her peace.

  Millie snapped her fingers. “What are you waitin’ on, an engraved invitation? Move!”

  He turned to her, one brow raised and his spine stiff. This was not the same man I’d seen the half-dozen other times I’d run into him. “I think the only thing that’s gonna be movin’ here is you. Pack up those God-awful clothes and the forty pounds of makeup you brought with you and get out.”

  My jaw about hit the floor, but Ida smiled like the cat that ate the cream. “That’s the man I know and despise. But I’m proud of you.”

  Millie, however, wasn’t quite so happy. “Go ahead, throw me out. We’re married; half this place is mine and I’ll force you to sell. You just got it, so it’s marital property.”

  Felix rolled his eyes and looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “God, I hate to say this, but Ida’s right. If brains were gunpowder, you wouldn’t have enough to blow your nose. Have your lawyer explain it to you.”

  She squealed and stomped her feet in frustration, her face burning with rage. “I shoulda convinced Jim to take you out, too.”

  You could have heard a pin drop as every set of eyes, both dead and alive, swiveled to her. She slapped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late. The pig was done out of the poke.

  I had to hand it to Hunter—he didn’t miss a beat. He pulled his cuffs off his belt and stepped forward, starting the whole Miranda spiel as he went.

  Once she calmed down, it didn’t take her long to start backpedaling. The only bad part was that I had to ride back to town with her cuffed behind us.

  “Can’t you put duct tape on her mouth?” I said, raising my voice to be heard over her protests.

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m a cop, not a kidnapper.”

  “Yeah, and I’m a witch,” I muttered just loud enough for him to hear. I turned in my seat and glared at her. “You have one more chance to shut up on your own.”

  She smirked at me. “Or else what?”

  I looked at Hunter and he lifted his shoulder. “You warned her.”

  Grinning, I reached back just to be dramatic and did the little key-lock motion over her lips as I took away her voice. Her whining ceased even though her lips kept moving, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and rage.

  “Ah,” Hunter said, as relieved as I was. “Blessed silence.”

  When JC, Hunter’s deputy, led her to a cell, Macon greeted her by name as they passed his. When she realized her goose was cooked, it didn’t take her long to spill her guts.

  We were right about one thing; she was most definitely not the mastermind behind the plan. She gave us enough information to help us piece together who was, though. Jim Simpson and Dan Greene were both in serious financial trouble, as Peggy Sue had so gleefully told me.

  We knew Jim wouldn’t likely crack, so we went for the weakest link—Dan Greene. Hunter barely had the cuffs on him before he started talking.

  Jim’s house and sixty acres sat catty-corner to the northeast corner of mine, and he’d reached the point where he was going to lose it to taxes. Since he owned several shady businesses in addition to the strip club and was behind on all those taxes too, he decided his best option was to sell his house and property to pay the taxes on his businesses. At least then he’d still have income. Dan wasn’t in much better shape but did still have some connections in Atlanta left over from the Hank days.

  When Jim found out Macon owned the strip of property next to me and was willing to part with it, he and Dan Greene put their heads together and decided to put the two pieces together and market it to developers. Unfortunately, none of the f
irms with big bucks were willing to deal with them for anything less than a hundred acres, especially considering the view from his property was of the trashier side of Keyhole and the two properties weren’t linked well.

  Rather than be happy with that, they—surprise, surprise—got greedy and figured they’d make a bundle if Ida and Merriam would sell to them cheap. They knew they couldn’t use their own names, so the shell company was born. They knew I wouldn’t sell, but Greene insisted on sending the letter just in case, and to make it look good.

  Even though Jim was about to lose everything because he’d spent so many years conning the system, he hadn’t learned anything from it. Hank had been plenty generous with him, allowing him to keep both the liquor store and Tassels open all hours of the night. During that time, Jim had also been shaking down some of the other business owners on the east side for "protection," which meant Jim's thugs wouldn't tear up their stores as long as they paid.

  That all went away when Hank died.

  Dan cut a deal in exchange for testifying against Jim. He swore he never wanted to hurt anybody and that Jim had taken that part upon himself, and weirdly enough, I believed him. He was a conman, but was too weak to be a murderer.

  Jim was in custody in less than an hour. Cheri Lynn floated right alongside him, showing herself and alternating between heckling him and cussing him 'til a fly wouldn't light on him—something she'd been too scared to do when she was alive. Then she proceeded to gleefully tell him about all the wonderful things waiting for him in prison, and how she hoped he got a giant cellmate with a penchant for violence and an attraction to weasely men.

  I was there too, mostly because I still didn’t know for sure who’d run Gabi off the road. I goaded him until we were almost to his cell, and he finally turned to me. “I was the one driving! I wasn’t trying to kill you for your land. That wouldn’t have worked. I was trying to kill you just because you’re a meddling bitch who’s too big for her britches and it would have made me feel good!”

  I didn’t give two squats what he thought of me, but I punched him in the face for trying to hurt Gabi. Then again for my truck. A nice, solid one-two set. Because he’s on the up and up, Hunter couldn’t give me a pass; he fined me my hundred dollars for battery. I gladly paid it and considered it money well spent.

  CHAPTER 46

  THE DAY AFTER, EVERYBODY gathered at the farm for a cookout. Camille was still out of town, and though I always worried about her, it wasn't unusual for her to be gone for much longer than just a few days. Harry and Stella from down the road had made it though, and of course, most of the regular crew had, too.

  Aurora had picked up the satchel the night before, but said that aside from the one sighting, nobody’d seen or heard from any of the older witches in the file folders since the evening of their run-in with my mom, Addy, and Beth. The younger ones were unfamiliar to her, though. She was going to put her best people on it, but I got the feeling there was something she wasn’t telling me.

  “So what are they supposed to do until you figure out what’s going on?” Beth had asked her.

  She’d just shrugged. “The only thing they can do is beef up the wards around their houses and businesses.” She’d turned to me, Rae, and Shelby. “Don’t be alone if you can help it. If you can’t be with each other, at least be with other people until we can figure out what’s going on. And I’m pulling Camille from field duty as soon as she’s done with this assignment so she can focus on training you all.”

  So, in essence, we didn’t learn anything at all except we were about to lose most of our free time. I figured it beat dying, though.

  Hunter was flipping burgers while the rest of us, including Max, played in the pool. The donkey had insisted on his own "lounging pool" which was his fancy expression for kiddy pool, but Matt had humored him and built it with a zero-entry side so he didn’t have to navigate steps.

  Sarah and Louise both showed up with their families, so Max wasn't getting exclusive use of what he considered his private space, but the old softy was loving playing with the kids, even if he wouldn't admit it.

  Kensey and Rose were there, and Ida was hanging out with Belle and Addy. Even Felix had shown up, thankfully Millie-less. Of course, she was locked up on conspiracy charges because her role in the whole mess was still fuzzy, so it’s not like he could have brought her if he’d wanted to. As I watched him interact with Rose and even Ida, I was confident she wouldn’t have been with him regardless.

  I was surprised when Anna Mae nudged me and pointed to the driveway, where Raeann and Dave were climbing out of his truck. “Do you reckon she’s gonna tell him?” she asked.

  That was an excellent question. Raeann rarely brought him with her to our cookouts, and I think it was because she was scared one of us would accidentally slip and do magic in front of him. To be fair, it was possible. This was our home, and we sometimes did things without thinking.

  Hunter grinned and held out his hand. "Hey, man. Good to see you. Welcome. Burgers are on, and there are beers in the cooler over there."

  Dave grinned back and took his hand. "Good to see you too. Don't mind if I do."

  Raeann was glancing at Max, chewing her lip. Max wasn't anywhere near shy, and since he was playing with kids who all knew he could talk, he wasn't exactly on guard.

  Addy floated by, and Dave heaved a great sigh. "Okay, this is it," he said. "I can't just keep being rude to people."

  He turned to Raeann. "Honey, don't panic, but you need to know something. It's okay though." A pained look crossed his face. "And please don't think I'm crazy, but I can't keep this from you anymore if we’re gonna move forward."

  She looked about ready to faint. I, on the other hand, was intrigued.

  "What shouldn't we panic about?" I asked, because Rae was apparently tongue-tied.

  He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, then said, "Okay, here goes. Please keep an open mind. My mom was sort of what you’d call a seer, which means she could see the future, and she could also see and talk to spirits. She passed the spirit part on to me.” He turned to Rae, and imploring on his face. “I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while now that your aunt hasn't crossed over. As a matter of fact, she's hovering right there, beside Hunter, with another spirit, and there’s one by Rose, too." He looked a little studious for a minute. “Now that I think about it, it’s odd to have so many in one place.”

  For the space of a heartbeat, silence reined, then I about busted a gut laughing. Hunter followed my lead, and Addie and Anna Mae joined him. Rae, on the other hand, didn't know what to think.

  "What?" Dave asked, his forehead wrinkled in bemusement.

  I could barely stop laughing long enough to pant, "We ... we know. We didn't say anything because we didn't think ... you knew!" I was bent double again, and even Rae was starting to smile.

  "And that's not all," Anna Mae gasped, "Is it Raeann?" She nudged her with her elbow.

  "No," Rae said, the smile fleeing her face. She looked like she was going to throw up. "It's not."

  "It's not?" Dave asked, curious.

  She shook her head, then snapped her fingers and a small flame appeared. "I'm sorta a witch," she said, and glanced at me, a question in her eyes. I nodded. "Actually, several of us here are."

  He plopped down on the chair that Hunter'd shoved behind him when he saw him wobble.

  The poor guy blinked a couple times, then glanced back at her. "What else can you do?"

  She cringed a little, then reached out and barely touched his beer bottle, concentrating until it was almost as big as a wine bottle. I stood ready in case her magic went wonky and we ended up with a Bud-zilla.

  "Hey!" Hunter exclaimed, offended. "Why don't you ever do that for me?"

  Meanwhile, Dave beamed. "Honey, if you can grow actual beer, we definitely need to take this relationship to the next level."

  The happiness on her face made my heart smile. As always, we'd come through adversity just like we went through the
good times: together.

  And now it looked like we had one more person to open our hearts to.

  The kids were laughing and playing, the adults were mingling and enjoying the day, and the smell of burgers floated on the air. Family, friends, and good times.

  Even if trouble was looming on the horizon, all was well right then, in that little slice of time, and that was good enough for me.

  <<<<>>>>

  Thank you!

  THANK YOU FOR READING Murder of the Month. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Reviews are the lifeblood of an indie author’s career, so if you would take just one more minute to share your opinion and insights, I would greatly appreciate it!

  Book 8 in the Witches of Keyhole Lake series will be out in February of 2019, but until then, I invite you to try one of my other series. I’m including the first two chapters of Howling for Revenge, Book 1 in my Cori Sloan series, so keep reading. ☺

  Happy Reading,

  Tegan

  Howling for Revenge

  Chapter 1

  I JOGGED ALONG THE stream, reveling in that peaceful, early-morning stillness that only lasts until the rest of the world stirs. I picked up my pace a little as I followed the sun-dappled path around the tree line, enjoying the brush of the cool breeze along my skin as it dried the fine sheen of sweat from my body. The only sound beside the birdsong was my heart beating in tempo with the soft, steady thud of my sneakers against the asphalt.

  I sucked in a lungful of air, inhaling the fragrance of the early morning. The damp, earthy scent drifting from the stand of trees overshadowed the stench of humanity, and night-blooming jasmine sweetened the air, masking the lingering odors of fast-food wrappers and cheap perfumes.

  I slowed as I neared the end of the trail then stopped, placing my hands on my knees as my heart rate slowed and my breathing returned to normal.