Muffins, Magic, and Murder

by Jessica Lancaster

  “Absolutely, I understand,” I said, even though I found it extremely uncomforting for him to degrade witchcraft, especially after he’d asked me to use it yesterday morning. “Like I said, I’ll let you know.” I reiterated as I ushered him back out the door he came through.

  He’d caught me off guard, and I hated being caught like that, he’d only just broke the news to me yesterday, and he was interrogating me once again. Once he’d left, there was no way I could get a reading on him; I didn’t shake his hand and I couldn’t chase him down the street to do so.

  I glanced at the cap he’d left. Perhaps. I told myself, and took a hold of it. It could’ve been long enough for him to make an impression on it. I held it close to my chest and closed my eyes, focusing my energy.

  Nothing. He had given vital information, he’d told me he had no leads, there was no clues. It couldn’t have been him who cleared out the locked room on the second floor of Marissa’s house, unless she had done it herself pre-emptively. Maybe she knew she was going to die before it happened. I had too many thoughts swirling in my head.

  I threw the plastic cap in the bin and sighed onto a metal stool. I tucked myself into the workbench and looked at the cakes waiting to be filled, piped, or otherwise decorated. The closest was a plain sponge cake, the plan was to pack that with a hazelnut chocolate frosting, the kids went crazy over it, and it gave parents a bit of peace before the sugar kicked in.

  “Please, Goddess, I need a beacon shone on hope,” I said quietly to myself, pulling my necklace out by the chain. “A sign.”

  When asking for something, it wasn’t in the literal sense of it being given, no light would illuminate the path, but the chance to illuminate the path yourself would become clear. So, for hope, the chance at finding hope amongst everything going wrong would be much easier.

  I found myself completely rushed off my feet once I finally got started. I’d barely stopped to remind myself to eat, it was only once my stomach let out an ungodly grow from the pit I took a breather. It also reminded me I was to meet with the other witches soon.

  The other women from the coven worked around the village. Allegra was retired but helped in the local charity shop. Tana worked in the local children’s nursery, she was extremely good given her ability to read people, she knew what they needed before they could cry, and Eva worked as a freelance accountant, my accountant.

  Ralph had prepared a small spread of sandwiches for us to enjoy during lunch. I took them through to the backroom and waited on the others to arrive. Eva was first, although often late, followed by Allegra and Tana.

  “Oh,” Allegra said, eyeing up the sandwiches. “These for us?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Help yourself.”

  My chest was heavy as I sighed, recounting the information I needed to tell them. I pulled Marissa’s book of shadows from the shelf and placed it beside the tray of sandwiches.

  We sat around the table in the room, each looking at the cover, running our fingers along the spine.

  “This is all I found,” I said.

  Eva was quick to pull the book open, the pages flapping at her turn. “Well, I can hopefully help with the client list,” she said.

  “You’ve seen it?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I tried once, to align how much she said she was receiving versus how many clients she had, but I couldn’t grease her hands enough to get it out of her.”

  “And you didn’t find Laurie?” Tana asked, butting her lips together as she verged on the edge of an emotional break. “I can feel it, I bet she’s out there wondering and lost.”

  “We’ll find her,” I said.

  “We have to,” Allegra added. “She could be the saving grace to all of this.”

  “And then what? We just tell the police a talking cat told us who killed Marissa?”

  “No,” I said. “We find proof.” I pulled control of the book and skipped to the pages that had been torn.

  “Looks like someone took them in a hurry,” Allegra said, running a finger across the side of the paper. “Anyone have any idea what was beside this information on hexed crystals and—” she squeezed her face close to the paper of the other page. “The ending to a potion that includes ingesting three cloves of raw garlic?”

  “No,” Tana said, a slight weep to her voice.

  “Can you feel anything from this?” I asked, taking Tana’s hand.

  She jerked her hand back from me. “I don’t want to.”

  I immediately clenched my jaw, my teeth sinking into my lip. “I’m so sorry,” I said. She was hypersensitive to touch, overwhelmingly so, it made working with babies easier, they were clean slates, very minimal beings for her to work with.

  “I know she was working with Caroline,” Eva said, tapping a finger to her chin. She gazed off into the space on the wall.

  “Rosie was saying, she’s pregnant, right?” I asked.

  “I—I—I swore I wouldn’t say,” Tana said in a sniffle. “She was seeing someone, but he only visited every so often, she didn’t want anyone to know, I think he might’ve been married.”

  Acid reflux bubbled in my stomach at the thought. I knew there was a reason Marissa didn’t want any of us to know. My marriage crumbled because of cheating. It was the last thing I’d expect from a friend to be involved in. “She was?”

  “No, she couldn’t,” Allegra said in a gasp, halfway through chewing a sandwich.

  Tana nodded. “She swore me to secrecy.”

  “I never knew,” Eva said, holding her hands up. “She was working with Doris from the chip shop, I know because she’d get free fish and chips when she visited, but that was for something going on with her back, it’s hard to see Doris doing any damage especially with a dodgy back.”

  “Who else was she seeing?” I asked openly, whether that was a client or someone she was keeping a secret.

  “I’ll have to dig through her files to see if I can find any more names, but there were a few, I mean, there’s very few people she wasn’t talking to or helping in some capacity.”

  A true earth sign, always giving and helping, but the news of her being someone’s affair drove me sick.

  “Back to the man,” Allegra said.

  “Yes, what was his name?” I asked. “I mean, for all we know this is all because of some woman scorned and she’s taking out her anger, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t show up on the shore in the morning.”

  Tana shrugged. “She didn’t say, maybe it started with an M, or an N.” She threw her hands up over her hand. “Like Michael, or something, I don’t know.”

  “If he worked on the harbour, I’m sure I can find out,” I said.

  “So, more pressing issues,” Allegra said, and like deflating a led balloon over the room. Silence wrapped us all. “Tonight’s celebration might have to be cancelled. There’s only the four of us, at best we compensate with crystals, but,” she tutted, “that doesn’t replace a person, and we need our earth sign to ground us.”

  That much was true. “Are we holding it at yours, Eva, or mine?”

  Eva glanced at me, her face and eyes dazed in thought. “I’d say your house because you lived closer to her, but that’s part of the reason I don’t want all of us to go at all, and what if Hodge shows up, then what do we do?”

  “We wouldn’t be performing on Marissa’s garden,” I said.

  “Good idea though,” Allegra said, tipping her head and opening her eyes wider.

  Tana waved her hand in the centre of the table. “No, no, bad idea.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “Think about the energy there, I wouldn’t say it was a good idea in the slightest.”

  She was right. “But I didn’t sense any residue yesterday,” I said. “Either, she didn’t die in her house, or someone dropped her off.”

  “What?” Eva spat. “You didn’t think that was important, that might change everything.”

  “I didn’t think until now,” I replied. I was so wrapped up in getting in and out without b
eing caught, I was exactly taking a checklist of everything that I had to go through and think of before leaving. “And someone else was there.”

  Eva slapped her face with a hand. “Kinda important, you could’ve led with that.”

  “I was getting to it, but we need to know about tonight, or are we just going to put ourselves in danger now?”

  We agreed from the silence it would be held at my house. I possibly had the largest garden, but it would often alternate between the five of us—now four.

  “After tonight, we need to find a fifth,” Allegra said, standing. She stretched out her legs and cracked her back, oohing at the sensation. “There are plenty of witches out there without covens, but we can’t take the first we see. Maybe even someone younger.”

  “Doubt anyone younger wants to be tied to a coven,” Eva scoffed. “I mean, would you if you were in your twenties.”

  Allegra’s brow creased. “I was, actually, and it taught me a good lot of knowledge.”

  “Ladies,” I said, rapping my knuckles on the table. “Can we discuss this after tonight? We all need to put our energy into other things, don’t you agree?”

  Tana coughed into a fist. “I would agree.”

  Marissa was the one who kept us grounded, connected and together, she was the glue we used, she was what we needed the most right now, and not just because she was gone, but because she was our rock. Our earth.

  CHAPTER 10

  Baking was supposed to relax me, the one thing in my life that could remove me from every situation, but currently it was doing the least amount of removing. I found myself, stabbing into hard slabs of butter with my whisk trying desperately to cream it, beating away with little physical energy.

  A knock from the door roused me. I pulled the whisk and slammed it on the counter.

  Rosie peered, forcing her way inside. “You okay?” she asked, grabbing a hairnet from the dispenser. “I mean, I just saw you get butter all over the counter.”

  “I’m just—” I let out a deep breath. “I’m annoyed.”

  “Why?”

  “With Marissa gone, the group is in chaos, and tonight—tonight.”

  Rosie hummed as she comforted me with a hand around my shoulder. “It’s the full moon,” she said. “I have it marked on my calendar.”

  “Of course, you do,” I said, reciprocating the hug. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, we met earlier in the backroom, trying to figure out who Marissa had been talking to, and apparently she’s been cheating with some married man.”

  She didn’t seem shocked, in fact, I felt a sense of calm from her.

  “Yeah, Nick, he’s been trying to get with anyone who’d let him,” she said. “He’s only here every few weeks, think he’s from Wales or somewhere.”

  “Great,” I said, staring into the bowl of butter half-mashed with whisk marks. “Making a real pig’s ear of this.”

  “You could say that,” she said with a smile. “If it’s any help, I know Nick’s away fishing at sea.”

  It didn’t help, or reassure me. “His wife?”

  She shrugged. “Doubt she’d make the trip down here,” she chuckled. “I mean, he’s probably got someone at every harbour he stops in, if she came for Marissa, I’m sure she’ll be after the rest.”

  “And the police don’t have any leads, it’s got me in knots. Maybe they could blame one of us,” I sighed.

  “You have Caroline, she wasn’t too happy with Marissa,” she said, taking the whisk. “Not too happy with me either, but I don’t feel like she could kill me.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “Ooo!” She perked. “Ellyn was in the doctor’s office this morning, her son has ADD or ADHD, and apparently Marissa was helping her out massively, but the doctor can’t, she was actually very angry when I spoke with her this morning.”

  “If she was helping, doubt she’d want her dead.”

  “And I know a few weeks ago, I was talking to Bridget, she was seeing Marissa, something about trying to understand witchcraft,” she said. “And today, she was in to see the doctor, I think she has a UTI.”

  “When were you talking to her?”

  “Sometimes I like to go to church,” she said. “They have free coffee and cake, or even a small buffet, plus, you know people love to gossip at church.”

  “Honestly, that doesn’t make me comfortable, Bridget’s always been a trouble maker, it’s a shame her father doesn’t see through it or she’d be sent to one of those nunnery reform schools.”

  “Between you and me, I think he might have tried in the past,” she said.

  It settled me even less. I began mashing the butter once again. “I shouldn’t have started making this buttercream,” I said.

  A couple taps sounded on the circular glass window before Abi made her way into the kitchen. “I’m heading off now, are you coming through?”

  “Oh, what time is it?” I’d taken my watch off to bake.

  Rosie glanced at her watch. “Gone five,” she said. “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Oh, sugar.” I dropped the whisk in the mixing bowl and dusted my hands off on the apron. “I’ll be out in a tick.”

  “Want me to continue?” Rosie asked, nodding to the bowl.

  “Can you wrap it with some cling film and put it in the fridge, it’ll save.”

  There was only one person outside in the café, from 5 P.M. until closing it was usually dead, or people only popping in for takeout coffees, often those who worked on the harbour through the night.

  Mr. Harper, an elderly man sat in the corner of the café with a large tabloid paper covering his face, each time he’d turn the page, a large whoosh would follow.

  “How’re you today?” I asked, approaching him to clean away a cup from his table. The closer I found myself, the more my eyes fixed on the black bold lettering from the front cover. It read, DEAD WITCH, I blinked and the text changed to YOU’RE NEXT, I tripped backward over my feet and landed with a thud on my bottom.

  “Oh, good heavens,” Mr. Harper said at the sound of me hitting the floor. “You alright, Gwen?” he asked, folding up the paper and standing.

  I sat there for a moment as my eyes darted back to the paper in his hand. The real words on the paper were DEAD WOMAN FOUND, still uncomforting to see.

  “I’m fine,” I said, forcing a smile on my face as I clung to a nearby table for assistance. “You sit down,” I said. “Want another slice of cake, or apple pie I can get warmed through for you.”

  “I can’t,” he said, patting his stomach. “The Mrs wouldn’t be too happy.” He chuckled softly, stroking his fingers through his wispy beard.

  “I’ll just clear away these empty cups then,” I said, there were two of them on his table, and a third that had a little coffee left at the bottom.

  Once Mr. Harper had left, Rosie soon followed, and it was only me in the café, wiping down the sides and mopping the floor. I danced to the sound of Fleetwood Mac from the radio in the bakery, wiggling from side-to-side.

  A clash came as the café door sprang open and slammed shut again. My line of sight darted immediately as I stopped everything. A young woman dressed in a leather jacket and white crop top stomped through, leaving a trail of dirt in her wake.

  Standing behind the counter, I watched her every move. There was familiarity in the way she held herself I was behind the counter.

  “Where’s my mother’s book?” she asked, slamming a hand on the counter.

  It hit me, a clout to the face. “Oh, Noelia,” I said. Marissa’s daughter. I hadn’t seen her in years. I gasped.

  “Gwen, don’t play with me, where’s her book?”

  I shook my head. “It’s not here,” I said. “I was going to call you, I’m so so sorry.”

  Her brows knitted and the bridge of her nose pinched. “But you didn’t,” she said. “And then you went into her house and stole her book.”

  “What?” I gasped, choking on a breath.

  “I was there,” she sa
id.

  “I was protecting it, if it got into the wrong hands, then—then—”

  Noelia huffed. “Where is it?”

  I gestured to the front door with a hand, flicking my wrist to lock it and flip the sign to closed. “It’s being protected, I can get it for you in the morning.”

  She scoffed. “You know what tonight is, right?”

  “The full moon.”

  “Exactly.” Noelia wrapped her knuckles on the metal counter. “I have to leave. I came back for one thing.”

  “You can join us tonight,” I said, reaching for her hand.

  She pulled away before I could touch her. “No, I’ve already got my protection, I don’t need to see the women who betrayed my mother and let her die—well, murdered.”

  “We didn’t let that happen,” I said, a warmth behind my eyes, the indicator I was about to break out in tears. “We’re trying to find out who did this, right now the police have no leads, and we haven’t found any evidence that points to anyone.”

  “What about Laurie, have you found her?” she asked.

  “Not yet.”

  “When you do, I want her.” She tapped on the counter again. The shrill metallic bounced around the room. “Got it.” She turned on a foot to walk away.

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  “She’s my mother!”

  They hadn’t spoken in years, I remembered vividly they fought before Noelia left. Marissa was inconsolable for the most part afterward. I could tell why, looking at her dressed in biker gear and half her head shaved. It didn’t look like she was following in her mother’s footsteps at all.

  “All you came back for was the book?” I asked.

  She rolled her eyes at me, biting her lips together. “I don’t have to tell you anything, so before you get all sentimental about her telling me what she would’ve wanted, you can forget it, you’re all weak witches, you rely on one ceremony each month to protect you, you can’t cast real spells unless you’re a coven, and now my mother’s dead, so you don’t have much of anything.”

  “That’s not true, and I’m sure you have a coven now, you should know all about the power of collective magic.”