And I walked out.
Everyone in town knew about my Karma spells. A fair few of them had experienced one of them up close and personal. Let’s just say they were a specialty of mine and leave it at that.
Of course, it would only be fair to say that anyone hit by one of them did everything in their power to never, ever cross me or my family again. And all without me ever lifting a hand against them.
I believed in letting Karma do my dirty work for me. If Morgan Truesdell was as innocent as she’d have me believe, well then, bad Karma shouldn’t be an issue for her, now should it?
Somehow, I was betting that wasn’t the case.
MY PLAN WAS TO HEAD directly from the real estate office to see Patience Goodheart. She was my last hope. If I could get her to sell that property to me, then all would be well. If I couldn’t? Well, then I might be heading over to Oak Hill to see if I could gather the supplies for one more Karma spell. Ms. Truesdell wasn’t the only one to blame in this scenario. There was Kelly Wilson to deal with, too.
I sure as shooting didn’t plan to leave her out of the fun. In fact, I might just have to do the spells even if I could get Patience to agree to let me buy the property. Sometimes Karma just needed a good nudge. And I rather thought the two of them needed a little Karmic heinie kicking.
However, my plan was delayed when Orville called me.
“I’m not causing trouble,” I answered.
He chuckled. “Believe it or not, this isn’t a checkup call. I think you’re going to regret not coming with me to the meeting this morning.”
I highly doubted that. Meetings weren’t really my thing at the best of times. He had my curiosity up, though.
“And why do you think that?”
“Nope. Now you’re gonna have to wait. I want to see your face for this one.” There was a pause. “But I would ask that you wait before continuing on with your plans for the day. This just might save you a bit of effort.”
I frowned at the phone. What the devil was he going on about? My pride wouldn’t allow me to ask again, though. Not when he’d already refused to tell me. It wouldn’t do me any good, anyway. My man was a stubborn one.
“Opal?”
“I’m thinking. You know how important this is to me, right?”
“I do. And I’m not asking you to delay your plans forever. Just, well, put a pin in them until you take a gander through the file they just gave me.”
“You on your way back now?” That would probably be my deciding factor. If he was going to stay in Oak Hill and visit all day, there would not be a deal. He was known to do that, too. Oak Hill offered a lot of things Wind’s Crossing didn’t. When we made it there on business, we tried to take advantage of that.
“Just heading out. I’ll be back in town in about forty-five minutes. Maybe you can head over to The Flour Pot for a cup of coffee and a pastry while you wait?”
I grunted. Before our misadventure on that stupid cruise, that little gambit would have worked. It wasn’t nearly as appealing now that I’d permanently sworn off their Raspberry Delights.
“They have other donuts, you know,” he said.
Yeah, they did. But they just weren’t the same, were they?
“I’ll keep myself occupied somehow until you get here.”
He was quiet for a minute. “But not on the whole property thing, right? We have a deal? You’ll wait for me?”
To my mind, that was asking a lot. But what could an hour really matter one way or another? “Sure. I can do that.”
We made plans to meet back at the farmhouse, and I hung up. Now, what did I do with myself? If I kept my word to Orville—and a Ravenswind witch always kept their word—then visiting with Patience was now out of the picture.
Going back home to sit and stew for almost an hour wasn’t really an option to me, either. The house was already clean. And Nancy had made me promise not to touch the upstairs when in my cleaning mode. She’d complained the last time that happened that it had taken her days to get things back the way she wanted them. I tried to respect her boundaries.
She might just be a kid, but she had rights too.
Finally, I made my way to the market. I didn’t like to shop without a list, but I’d just have to wing it. Surely I could put together a couple of meals’ worth of supplies without the benefit of a list.
I managed okay, but it meant wandering around the entire store and going up and down every single aisle in the place. Not my normal quick in and grab what I needed. Then again, I had time to kill. So no harm, no foul.
At least that was true until I headed out of the very last aisle only to crash into a speeding cart being pushed by a woman on an apparent mission.
I’d tried. I’d really and truly tried. I just hoped that Orville believed me on that one.
Because the woman whose cart I’d just smashed into? Was none other than Kelly Wilson.
Crapsnackles to infinity.
Chapter 3
The woman’s look of extreme annoyance turned to an almost sadistic look of pure gloating pleasure when she saw me behind the handle of that cart. The smile forming on her lips was genuine, but not in the least bit friendly.
My mouth opened and then closed. I’d given Orville my word that I’d wait for him. I was still willing to try to keep that word. No matter how hard it was, I turned my cart and headed the other way.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.
“Oh sure, run away, Opal. Just the kind of thing a witch would do when they don’t get their way. How’s it feel when Karma comes back to bite you in the rear end?” She wasn’t being quiet about it, either. The people in the store were starting to gather to see my response.
I bit my tongue. Karma wasn’t why things weren’t going my way. One spiteful woman with a long-standing grudge was.
Yes, I’d given Orville my word, and I had done my level best to keep it, too. But a challenge was a challenge. I had a reputation to uphold here too. It wouldn’t do to have the town thinking married life was making me soft.
Walking away was no longer an option.
I turned to face her. “Hello, Kelly. I was very sorry to hear about your father. He was a good man.”
She blinked at me. Obviously not the response she’d been expecting. But it didn’t take her long to rally.
“A man you had under your spell, you mean. Dad might have gone to his grave thinking you were a friend, but I know better, Opal Ravenswind. And I made dang good and sure you didn’t get your mitts on Dad’s place too. How do you like them apples?”
I forced a smile. “It must be a wonderful feeling knowing in your heart that you did the right thing. Even when it probably cost you a ton of money in the end. But then, you’re pretty well off, aren’t you?”
That last bit wasn’t true, and I knew it. It wasn’t nice of me to throw it in there, but she wasn’t exactly being nice either. Far from it. At least I was keeping my tone civil. At a cost to my blood pressure, but I was doing it all the same.
“I’m not in enough financial trouble to need help from a witch, if that’s what you’re implying.”
I nodded. Okay, enough was enough. If that was how she wanted to play it, I could too.
“So, not like your senior year in high school then?”
An angry red flushed into her cheeks, and she glanced around to find all the good shoppers stopped and watching our exchange with great interest. Bet she wasn’t nearly as happy about that now.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times, and then she threw her head back, turned her cart, and headed for the checkout.
Part of me wanted nothing more than to follow her and collect a single strand of hair to go along with the one in my pocket. But no. That darn Ravenswind word kept my feet going the other way.
I really hoped Orville appreciated my restraint. I’d hate to think I’d shown it for nothing.
AFTER THAT ORDEAL, I needed comfort. Not just any comfort, either. I needed a danged Raspberry Delight.
Walking up to the counter, I pointed to one of the Raspberry Delights. “I’ll pay you double, but I want you to break that in half and then sample the filling yourself.”
The person behind the counter, a teenager barely graduated from high school by the looks of it, just looked at me. “Huh?”
I took a deep breath and pointed again. “If you will break that pastry in half and sample the filling to be sure it isn’t... rancid... then I will buy it. And then I’ll give you a five-dollar tip for your trouble.”
He looked from me to the pastry and back again. Then he slowly tore the donut in half, took a plastic spoon and scooped out a tiny bit of the filling, and ate it. I watched him carefully. No signs of ill effect.
“All right, then, I’ll take it.”
He started to reach for a fresh one, but I stopped him. “No. I want that one.”
The boy blinked at me, but carefully wrapped the broken donut in paper for me. I paid for it, plus the promised tip, and took my guilty purchase out to the car to eat it in private.
It worked, and I was in a much calmer state of mind when I finally arrived back at the farmhouse to meet Orville. What with the confrontation in the market and the added stop to the Flour Pot, he beat me there. Luckily, not by much.
Orville was sitting at the dining room table, papers spread out in front of him. Most likely that file the insurance company had given him. He looked up as I walked in. Then he grinned at me.
“I’d ask what took you so long, but I can see that your self-imposed boycott of Raspberry Delights is over.”
How the...? Then he tapped the corner of his mouth. I glanced at my reflection in the hallway mirror and saw the incriminating dot of red. As Orville knew I wasn’t a vampire, he’d jumped pretty quickly to the correct assumption.
I was off the wagon. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure at this point how I’d ever stayed on the darn thing for so long.
My tongue came out to clear the evidence. No sense in wasting it. Then I brushed the hair from my face and pulled it back into a ponytail. It was easier to work that way.
I walked over to the table and looked down at him. “So what is so special about this case that you had to see my face when you told me?”
He leaned back in his chair, still grinning. “Well, I kind of figure that you had it on your mind to cast a Karma spell or two about the whole real estate deal. Most likely one on Kelly Wilson, and another on Morgan Truesdell. Am I right so far?”
I gave him a grudging nod.
“Well,” Orville drawled."What if I told you that you could save yourself from having to do one of those spells."
I cocked an eyebrow at him. I was going to need more, and he knew it.
He chuckled and motioned to a chair. “Have a seat. This is where it gets interesting.”
I sat.
“Okay, so do you happen to remember those home burglaries a few weeks back? The odd ones where only a couple of things were taken?”
I nodded. They were just odd enough, as burglaries go, to remember them. Three houses total were hit, and the burglar had seemed to know exactly what they were after... and from the lack of mess when the owners had returned, they’d known exactly where to find it, too.
The really odd thing was that the culprits had left items behind that were even more valuable than what they had stolen. A real puzzler, that one.
“Well, as luck happens, two of those houses were covered by our friendly little part-time employer, Megasun Insurance. And they’ve put together a nice little packet for us to peruse.”
I glanced at the papers strewn over the table and then back to him. “Don’t suppose you’d give me the highlights?”
The grin was back. “Should’ve gone to the meeting, huh?” Then he broke. “I should make you read the file, but this is just too good to wait for that.” He took a sip from his water bottle.
I waited. He was going to make me suffer a little. I got that.
“Those three burglaries here in Wind’s Crossing match the M.O. of other sets of robberies in the next couple of towns over. All fairly local, and within a twenty-five-mile radius from our town center. Plus yet another set of robberies in Oak Hill.”
Okay, so that was interesting. But it still didn’t explain why he thought the news would save me a Karma spell.
“The funny thing is, for the longest time, they couldn’t figure out the common denominator. Then our burglars got a little too antsy with waiting and upped their game.” He looked me in the eye and winked. “Every single house involved has been sold within the last year. The last burglary—the one that tipped the knowledge scale—still has a sign out front. Morgan Truesdell and Associates.”
I shook my head. “That can’t be right. I know one of the families that was robbed. Yes, they just bought their house this past year, but they didn’t go through Morgan. And the house wasn’t listed by them, either.”
Orville looked entirely too smug. “You are correct. Not all the homes were listed with Morgan. In fact, only the last one was actually through their agency.”
“Then why does the company think they are involved? Or do they?”
“They do.” Another sip from his water bottle. He was milking this for all it was worth. “But they pulled the records of all the showings on those houses. Out of all the local agencies from all the towns involved, the only realtor name that came up on every single list was Morgan Truesdell and Associates. It’s enough that they’ve hired us to check into it and possibly build a case against them.”
He smirked at me. “So, for just this once, it would appear that Karma has beaten you to the draw.”
Chapter 4
We spent the rest of that afternoon and evening pouring over the records from the insurance company. Orville kind of insisted on that.
I still fully planned to pay a visit to Patience Goodheart, but as Orville was adamant to say repeatedly, the difference of a single day wasn’t really going to matter much. She would either sell the property to me or not. And truthfully, if she had her reasons for wanting it, I was rather betting on the not. Much as I wished it would end differently.
The case the insurance company had built on Morgan’s little agency was compelling. In fact, I thought they were right on the money with it. Especially when you took into account the fact that each of the houses had two things in common. The first was the fact that the sellers of each house had given their realtors keys for showing the house. They then shared those keys with other realtors who booked showings.
Keys were fairly easy to duplicate. Especially if you happened to have a brother who owned the local hardware store. Complete with a key duplication machine. That was a serious point against Morgan right there.
The other thing they had in common was that the new owners had failed to change the locks after moving in. I just didn’t get that. The very first thing I’d done when Sapphire and I had bought the farmhouse all those years ago was change every single lock into the place.
I mean, it was common sense, right? Only it seemed the buyers of these properties were a bit lacking in that area of intelligence. Or maybe they were just a bit too trusting of their fellow man.
That hadn’t worked out so well for them, had it?
By the time we went to bed that night, we had a plan of sorts. At least, we had the first port of call. A quick visit to the sheriff’s office to gather intel on the local robberies. We needed a list of all the items taken. Pictures, if they were available.
When we got up the next morning, we were ready to put the plan into action. Orville and I had a quick breakfast of milk and cereal—I was far too antsy to cook anything more substantial—and then we piled into his SUV for the short ride into town.
Our farmhouse is out in the country, yes, but it’s also within a few miles of town. It made life a whole
lot easier that way. We got our nature in abundance, and a brief car ride could pretty much fulfill all our more basic needs of life.
Well, what we couldn’t fulfill for ourselves right there on our own property. Orville had already started working on making our place more ‘sustainable’ as he called it. That was classic Orville, always wanting to be one step ahead of the world. Not that it was a bad idea, mind you. It wasn’t.
Especially when you considered the direction in which our world seemed to be headed.
We hadn’t gone far when a vehicle came into sight headed toward us. A very distinctive light lilac-colored Chevy Impala. Patience Goodheart had adopted that color for good reason. It matched her magical aura very well. Must have been a true bear getting just that proper shade, when most likely the person mixing the paint couldn’t be shown the actual source of inspiration.
But somehow she’d managed. If nothing else, Patience was a very capable person. Capable witch too.
As her car passed ours, she glanced over and gave us a smile and a wave. For the record, it seemed genuine enough. She slowed down, and for a minute, I thought she was going to stop. But she didn’t. Her Impala sped back up, and we continued on our mission.
Orville waited for another mile before finally asking. “You want to go back and talk to her, don’t you?”
I hesitated, so very badly wanting to say yes. But we had agreed to put the case first this morning, and passing Patience on the road to her new property really didn’t change that.
“Yes, but I can wait. Business first.” Even though, to my mind, getting that property was a cross of business and pleasure in itself. But I was pretty sure Orville wouldn’t see it that way. Not sure I could explain it in a way that would make any difference, either.
I honestly didn’t know why I wanted that property so badly. I just knew that I did. And had for years.
Witch of a Neighbor (Witch Reborn Book 6) Page 2
