Muffins, Magic, and Murder

by Jessica Lancaster

“You have the book now,” I said. “What more do you want?”

  “You’re right,” she laughed, turning on her heel to leave. “I’m leaving.”

  Noelia stormed off and I followed behind. The café had picked up a little in the past twenty minutes, although that was usually the case with rainy days, the café was a haven away from it all.

  Detective Hodge walked through the café door and immediately made eye contact, but his eyes darted to Noelia.

  “Noelia Day?” he asked, grabbing hold of her arm.

  “Yes, why?” she said, pulling away from him.

  “I need to ask you some questions, I’m Detective Hodge and I’m investigating your mother’s death.” His voice trailed off as he escorted Noelia out of the café. Before they left, she turned and glanced at me with a menacing squint.

  Quickly, I rushed to the kitchen to take a breath from the heat of all the glaring eyes one me. Pulling the vile of liquid from my pocket, I held it up to the light and stared. I wasn’t completely sure if it even worked, knowing Tana, she may have messed it up on purpose.

  Noelia’s words stuck with me about reporting to the council, I knew it was unethical to use it on humans without their consent, but never witches, and given the work I was doing, I was surprised I wasn’t being commended.

  A tapped came from the door. “Gwen, the doctor wants to see you,” Abi said.

  “He does?” I asked, snatching the vile from the air.

  “Yep,” she said. “He’s adamant about speaking with you.”

  “I’ll be right out.” I shoved it back in my pocket and combed a hand through my hair a couple times, checking my reflection in the oven window before leaving the kitchen.

  Doctor Raymond stood at the counter with a large grin on his face. His large beige overcoat was covered in specks of rain water and his hair was slicked back. “Hello,” he greeted.

  “Hi,” I said. “You wanted me?”

  He nodded. “Rosie mentioned you needed a distraction,” he said, “but, ideally, I’d like to ask you out on a date.”

  Oh, no. I hadn’t been on a date since meeting my husband. I must’ve been stood in absolute silence because Abi nudged me to talk. “Oh—sure.”

  “Great, well while we discuss times and dates, how about I have a coffee,” he said.

  “Coming right up,” Abi said.

  “Oh, I’ll get that for you,” I said. He’d asked me out on a date, I could get the information from him about Marissa then, or I could add a drop of serum to his coffee and hope he spills right now. I was a fan of the latter, but he wasn’t a witch and I wasn’t the type of person to go ahead and dose anyone for the fun of it.

  “Great,” he said.

  Yet, I was doing it anyway. I added one single drop to the liquid, carelessly pulling it from my pocket for anyone to see, luckily nobody did, as the café filled out the staff were busy dealing with everyone.

  “Bless the Goddess,” I mumbled to myself before handing him the drink.

  “How much is that?” he asked.

  “On the house,” I said with a huge smile.

  He chuckled. “Generous too.” He sipped the coffee. “I like that, so you’re into the occult then?”

  My forehead creased. It wasn’t the worst conversation starter. “Not quite what I would call it.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be insensitive.”

  “That’s quite alright,” I said. “I’ve been meaning to ask.” My voice dropping to a whisper. “You’ve seen Marissa’s body, right? Do you have any idea how she was killed?”

  His eyes lit up as his pupils dilated. “Well—I—I shouldn’t say,” he sipped more of the coffee. “But I feel like I should.” He took another sip, the cup resting beneath his lips as he sucked on the liquid. “It wasn’t stabbing, in fact it was most likely—” he paused, the cup dropping from his hand and splashing across the metal.

  Staring me dead in the eye, his bottom lip trembled before he dropped to the floor.

  “Good heavens!” Ethel exclaimed through the silence of gasps. “You’ve gone and done it now, Gwen.”

  She was right. I’d really done it now, I took a step back as people crowded around him. Now would be the time to ask if there were any doctors in the café, but we only had one, and that was him.

  “He’s breathing,” Abi announced.

  The café door rang as Eva walked in to see the kerfuffle of people stammering around the unconscious doctor. She parted everyone to look. It was all it took before she glanced my way and raised an eyebrow.

  “What did you do?” her next words were as she came behind the counter.

  “It was just a—” I reached for it in my pocket.

  “I know,” she said, pushing my hand away. “But it was enough to take down a fully-grown witch.”

  Abi rushed on her toes to grab him some water. He woke moments later, raising his head slightly to take the water in his mouth.

  “Are you okay?” Abi asked. “Need me to call someone?”

  He stood sloppily on his right leg, grunting and huffing, pulling his overcoat around himself. “I—I—I’m fine.” He combed a hand through his hair and spun on his good foot as he looked around the café.

  “Doctor,” I said, trying to wave after him.

  He rushed out of the door, dragging his limp right leg after himself.

  “Oh gosh,” Ethel chirped. “I thought we’d be rid of him for good.”

  While the café occupied themselves into normalcy, I pulled Eva into the bakery, throwing her a hairnet and some gloves. “He was going to say something.”

  “He was?” she asked, “I only came in for a coffee, going over the accounts for the charity shop is playing nightmare with my head.”

  “He said she wasn’t stabbed, and then he was going to say what he thought it was.”

  Eva shuddered. “You shouldn’t have added it to his drink, this could open us all up to the police,” she said. “How did it go with Noelia?”

  “Clearly, she didn’t do it,” I said. “But Hodge took her in for questioning, and it looked even more suspicious because she came out of the backroom with her mother’s book.”

  A cold rush passed my shoulder, not an unfamiliar feeling given we were in a kitchen, chilling my back and spine. “You feel that?”

  “Didn’t feel good,” Eva said with a slight jig as she shook her limbs.

  Seconds later, Tana rushed into kitchen with Abi chasing after her, shouting “you can’t go in there.”

  “It’s fine,” I said at the door.

  Tana threw herself on the ground and hurled against a metal cupboard.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  She sucked in a deep breath, her limbs still shaking. She offered out her hand to me. “Look.” She pushed out a second hand to Eva.

  A single touch was cold and sharp. It danced across my chest and ached in the joints of my body. Falling to my knees with my hand clenched around hers, I closed my eyes, I tried to see. Nothing, only a deep impenetrable darkness.

  “I saw it,” Tana said, pulling her hands back to slam against her chest.

  “What did you see?” Eva asked, kneeling to her side. “I didn’t see a thing.”

  “Me either.”

  “It was on my door,” she said. Her eyes close to tears. “It said you’re next.”

  A flash crossed my eyes, only yesterday the words appeared on the cover of a newspaper, the title in all block capitals. I pulled at Tana’s hand once again, this time forcing through the sight that had crossed my eyes.

  “You saw it too?” she asked, bawling her eyes out.

  I stood and Eva followed as we left Tana on the floor. “What did you see?” she asked.

  “It was a flicker, on a newspaper, it said you’re next, but it was just my eyes playing tricks on me,” I said.

  Eva shook her head. “It’s never that,” she said. “You should’ve told us yesterday evening. Now it looks like people are hunting us.”

  �
��We need to tell Allegra,” I said.

  “If what we did last night was to protect us, and Tana still received the note, I’m not sure how well the spell actually worked.”

  CHAPTER 13

  We moved Tana into the backroom where she sat around a crystal, sopping up the energy like it was keeping her alive. Allegra came over on her lunchbreak and Eva continued pacing the room, procrastinating for answers.

  “How is she now?” Allegra asked in a whisper.

  We stood in a small circle, away from Tana.

  “A lot better,” I said. “But that bloodstone geode will do that.”

  “And how were things with Noelia?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “Not her, even though it would make sense if someone was magically leaving notes around.”

  Eva gnashed her teeth. “It’s not unheard of that a witch comes back to warn her coven of something bad happening,” she said. “I mean, maybe she’s warning us.”

  “It’s unlikely,” I said. “These weren’t seek help, you’re next type of notes, these were statements of fact, like it was going to happen.”

  “You saw?” Allegra asked.

  I chewed on a fingernail, reminding myself after this whole ordeal I’d need a manicure. “It wasn’t a physical note, but I saw something appear on a newspaper with those exact words, I just assumed I was tired at the time.”

  “I wasn’t aware you were receiving visions,” Allegra said.

  I shrugged. “I didn’t know either, well, either way, I’m not a fan of how they leave my stomach. I think I need to go buy some Alka-Seltzer.” Which was odd coming from a witch who could whip up a batch of tea to calm an upset stomach, but sometimes the industrial grade stuff worked wonders.

  “I can go around asking people we suspect,” Eva said.

  “We’d have better luck throwing stones at people until they confessed,” Allegra chuckled. “Gwen should go, more personable.”

  “I was going to—”

  Eva stomped her foot. “She almost killed the doctor, doping him with the serum.”

  “You what?” she asked.

  “It was the tiniest drop and I wanted to see what he knew about Marissa, we can’t be waiting around sitting on our hands, can we?”

  “I still think Gwen should talk to the people,” she said.

  I nodded. “I can take cakes.”

  “Cakes without poison,” Eva scoffed.

  I rolled my eyes. “Obviously.”

  “Guys,” Tana said in her soft voice. “I don’t think this could’ve been any normal person, I felt anger and evil in the note, nobody here has that much going through them.”

  “All we can do is ask,” I said. “There are a number of things this could be, someone using an outside witch, someone who decided to summon a demon, or someone really that angry, but I can’t think why someone would be so angry at Marissa.”

  We nodded in agreement.

  Tana stood and stretched out, rebirthed through the energy from the crystal. It was what most of the clients would want me for, the emotionally healing I could provide them with.

  “On the list, we have the man Marissa was seeing,” Allegra said, listing off on her fingers. “Bridget, the priest’s daughter. Caroline, the pregnant woman. Ellyn, the mother whose son has an attention problem.”

  I hummed, tapping a finger to my mouth. “I don’t think it was the man she was seeing, I’ll check the harbour log, but it doesn’t seem like he’s around, nor do I think it could’ve been his wife. I mean, what would she have needed with a couple pages from Marissa’s book.”

  “And we’re definitely crossing Noelia off the list?” Allegra asked.

  I gave a single nod. “There’s no lying with the serum, unless it didn’t work.”

  “No, it would’ve worked,” Tana barked. It shocked us all to silence, leaving us staring. “I mean, there are ways around it, like avoiding the question, but the serum would’ve definitely worked.”

  “Great, then we have nothing to worry about,” Allegra said. “I should get back to the shop soon, but before that I’m grabbing a coffee and a sandwich, I don’t know how much more of today I can take.” She thudded her hands to her face and groaned.

  “Me too,” Eva added. “Anyone else on the list we can think of?”

  Tana shuddered. “Well I destroyed the note, burnt up in flames, I didn’t want to feel its presence around me.”

  “I have plenty to start,” I said, counting off the people’s name on a hand. “I mean, we’ll have to find something from all this happening.”

  We nodded at each other. It was a plan, and so far, the plan of action meant I was going to be putting myself in the line of danger, if these people were dangerous enough to kill a witch, then just how truly could I protect myself from them.

  I reached for the pentagram necklace, fishing it out from behind my dress. “I’ll take precautionary crystals for the boost if I need,” I said, busying myself around the room to clean away the disruption and disorganisation of crystals on the shelves. “Because we don’t know how well the protection worked last night.”

  Another truth, we felt something, but it was nowhere near as powerful as when the five of us would perform the ceremony, the buzz that ran through our bodies was only faint, it was a whisper when we were so used to hearing the loud gravitas booming through our spines.

  I left Abi and Ralph in charge, even though he was about to leave, he agreed to work a couple extra hours so I could run errands and not leave Abi alone. Usually I’d have Rosie or my son around but she was working up a storm in Doctor Raymond’s practice and he’d left me to go to university.

  First on the list was Nick, or Nicholas, or any variation on the name. I’d need to check with Shay, the old lady who worked on the harbour and required every man, woman, and child to sign her log book once they’d disembarked their boats.

  The village of Cowan Bay was easily travelled by foot, and today it had been raining, but was considerably settled once I decided I was leaving. I crammed a small umbrella in my bag and wrapped up warm in my jacket and scarf.

  The café was closest to the dock and the harbour. Seagulls let out their fog horn squawks as they fought for scraps of food on the floor. I shooed them, walking along the cobbles to the harbour. Sea water lapped the lip of the curved footpath, draining back out into the sea, not ideal for wearing my sturdy black wedge shoes with, but there was a large metal fence around so if anybody did trip they weren’t headfirst in the water. I carried a small carrier bag with slices of cake inside.

  At the end of the footpath in a small square building with one door, and a large window looking out onto the sea, was Shay, she was an older woman who rarely came by the café and there was reason for that.

  “What do you want?” she asked, her upper lip curling as she spoke.

  I smiled regardless of her sour cream attitude. “I was looking for a man.”

  “Aren’t we all,” she said, her upper lip unmoved. “My man is Jesus, so unless you’re looking for God, I’ll need to ask you to leave.”

  “No, I mean, a man who comes through here every few weeks,” I said.

  She shrugged. “I only have reports from the past few days. The police have the log books.”

  “The police?” I asked.

  She scoffed. “There was a murder,” she said. “A woman died.”

  I understood more than she did about the woman who’d died, but if the police were looking at log books, there must’ve been some truth to there being a person from the harbour having something to do with Marissa’s death.

  “Okay, but can you tell me if a man by the name of Nick has been around?” I asked.

  She tapped her fingers on her desk. “Nick? A pretty common name.”

  “Well, he’s been around,” I said. “He’s not from here.”

  She shrugged. “Last name? But like I said, the police have all the records.”

  “Okay,” I said, chewing on the inside of my cheek as I lost my
self in thought, lots of dots weren’t connecting, so many fragmented pieces of the same puzzle and nothing was coming together like it should.

  “Anything else I can help with?”

  I shook my head. “That’s all.” I wasn’t going to offer her any cake, at least not when she wasn’t going to offer me any information or be any help whatsoever.

  “Well remember, church service is happening this evening if you’d like to join.”

  “I’m fine,” I said, waving a hand and turning on my foot to leave. It wouldn’t be, but it was the perfect place to speak to the next person on my list, the parish priest’s daughter, Bridget.

  CHAPTER 14

  Bernard, the local chaplain was a wholesome man, very accepting of all lives and faiths. He lived in a small cottage around the back of the church. I’d visited him once before to offer condolences once his wife died a couple years ago, his entire house was filled completely with Elvis Presley memorabilia. He was an extremely personable man.

  I entered the doors of the local chapel. It was big enough to have around thirty people in at any one time, nothing too extravagant; quaint would be descript. As I walked through the front doors, Bernard greeted me, a surprised smile on his face.

  “Oh, Gwendolyn,” he said. “You deliver now?”

  My face blushed red at the reference to calling me by my full first name. The only person who called me that was my mother, and letters addressed in the mail. “Hello,” I said. “Oh, no. I’ll have your cake ready for your service later though. Is Bridget around?”

  “And here I thought you came over to seek some guidance,” he said.

  I hummed. “Somewhat.”

  “Ah, anything I can help you with?”

  I weighed up the options quickly. I could tell him it was about Marissa’s death and immediately have him guarded, or I could spin it positively. “I heard she was talking to Marissa, and I—” I let it out, spilled from my lips.

  “She was?” he creased his face, pinching at the bridge of his nose where his glasses sat. “Well, by all means, if it helps you seek closure, I know how important that is.”

  I pulled the bag to eye level. “I have some cake as well,” I said. “I didn’t want to come over empty handed.” There were at least three servings of cake and I handed them all over. “There’s a cherry Bakewell sponge,” I said. “If I remember.” Which I didn’t. “One of your favourites.”