A Charming Crime (10 page)

The front room
where all the hard work of Darla was on display was filled with all sorts of
glass bottles of different shapes and sizes.

Lamps were
scattered throughout the shop on small tables. Each lamp shade was very
ornamental and no two were alike.. I vaguely remember playing with the strands
of beads that dangled from some of them when I was a child. They made the shop
homey, and it felt like I had come home to a place where I belonged.

There were chalk
boards on the wall with the special of the day written in Darla’s handwriting. I
took my phone out of my bag and took a photo of each board. Darla might not
have believed in picture memories, but I did.

Tiered display
tables sprinkled the shop floor with all sorts of remedies on them. Although
the bottles had dust on them, I knew the remedies inside were good. Luckily, I
think there was enough inventory to open tomorrow.

I picked up the
feather duster off the counter and shook it in the air.
Cough, cough.
I
fanned the air. There was more dust in the duster than in the shop. A quick
surface clean was good enough for now.

The back room
walls were lined with every ingredient that I had ever dreamed of. Bottle after
bottle was in alphabetical order. The dried herbs hung from a clothesline around
the room. There were burners, test tubes, melting pots, strainers, muslin
clothes, cauldrons and much more. There was a couch, desk, and
mini-refrigerator that seemed like a good place to rest if I ever needed to.

There was a
cardboard box on the couch. Quickly I rummaged through it. I really wanted to
get home and go to bed so that morning would come. I was excited.

The box
contained a few odds and ends. A book was wedged in the bottom and I reached
for it. I ran my hand along the old leather binding to clear off the dust.
Carefully I opened the leather cover. I didn’t want it to fall apart.

“Darla’s
journal,” I read aloud. Darla had a journal? “Come on,” I gestured for Mr.
Prince Charming to follow me. It was time to lock up and go home.

There was enough
time to get home, eat a Ding Dong, and read a little bit of this journal before
I had to go to bed. Not only was tomorrow a big day, I was hoping that the
journal had some answers to the questions I had been seeking.

Clink, clink
. I turned the
old skeleton key and pushed on the wood door to make sure it was locked. Mr.
Prince Charming walked ahead of me with his tail high in the air. It waged back
and forth and hit a few fireflies along the way.

Having something
of Darla’s temporarily made all the bad feelings of the day go away. I’d never
known her to have a journal. It sort of surprised me. Darla had no problems
expressing how she felt when she felt it. She was always so positive and
reminded me that we were no better than anyone or the other way around. She
taught me to see the good in everyone.

I was beginning
to doubt that with everything that had happened recently. Hopefully, reading
some of Darla’s journal entries would help restore her belief in me.

My new bed was
definitely more comfortable than the one I had in Locust Grove. Mr. Prince
Charming curled up in the fold of my arm.

“I open my shop
tomorrow,” I read Darla’s words aloud.
Fun,
I was opening tomorrow too.
“I’m a little nervous about some of the measurements being inaccurate. Otto
said that it was good, but I still have doubt in my mind. I tell Otto all the
time how I wished I had his instincts, his spiritual gift. But if I can’t, I
hope our sweet little June does.”

Darla had doubt?
Doubtful was one word I would never use to describe her. She always seemed so
confident.

Chapter
Ten

“Turn over, turn
over,”
was all I could remember shouting out in my sleep just as I saw the hands
slowly peel away from the neck. The head tilted to the side and as if it had one
final push, the eyes popped opened, staring at me. They shone with fear.

It was Ann.

My heart nearly
leapt out of my chest. It woke me up. Blinking several times, I remembered
where I was. Whispering Falls, and smack dab in the middle of a murder. Oh
yeah, and how could I almost forget that I’m a spiritualist?

“Mr. Prince
Charming?” I called out but he wasn’t anywhere to be found. He must’ve found
some sort of escape route out of the house, just like he did in Locust Grove.
Darla’s journal was lying next to me. I must’ve fallen asleep reading it.
“Eloise,” I whispered.

She was going to
have to go to the back of my mind until I told Oscar about my nightmare. A
little too late, but still it was strange for my nightmares to be changing so
much.

I grabbed my
cell and dialed him.

“How did you
sleep?” There was concern in his voice.

“Good, until the
body turned over.” I pushed the button on the coffee pot and then looked out
the window over the kitchen sink.

It was the most
beautiful view of Whispering Falls. The house sat on top the hill giving a
great view of all the visitors that were already walking around.

Bella was right.
The lush green grass that covered the ground surrounding the shops was vibrant.
It looked like carpet.

“What do you
mean body?” Oscar asked with caution.

“My nightmare
was different. It wasn’t the same one.” Out the window, in the distance, I
could see a little white fur ball galloping toward the house, and it looked
like there was something in his mouth. “The hands let go and the body turned
over. It was Ann.”

“Don’t tell me
any more until you get an attorney.” He pleaded.

“An attorney?”
Why in the world. . .
oh, no
. My throat hit the bottom of my stomach.
“Are you saying there aren’t any other suspects? Only me?”

“I’m just saying
that no one else had any issues with Ann that I can find. You and she had a
public fight.” Oscar was to the point.

“Fine.” I wasn’t
going to argue with him. I knew I didn’t do it. Just because everyone around
here had all sorts of psychic abilities, I’m sure they were still human and had
fights. I did feel a little tension between Chandra and Ann, as well as Izzy
and Ann. Hell, Ann had tried to sue Chandra. And what about the statement that
Izzy said the first time I went to Mystic Lights about the fact that Ann
couldn’t hold down a job and it was
her
responsibility. Why was Ann her
responsibility?

There was only
one way to find out.

Madame Torres.

It was at least
worth exploring. I was determined to figure out everyone’s relationship and how
they were connected to Ann. If I was a betting woman, I’d say Madame Torres
could tell me a thing or two.

“June.” Oscar
stopped me before I hung up. “Don’t go around putting your nose where it
doesn’t belong. You need to let the experts do that. Something will turn up.”

He knew me too
well. But not well enough to know that I wasn’t going to listen to him.

Mewl, mewl
. Mr. Prince
Charming dropped something near my foot. I hung the phone up and bent down to
pick it up.

“You are a
thief.” The dog charm was cute with the two small diamonds for eyes. “You are
making us look really bad. It’s not enough that they think I killed Ann and you
go off and steal a charm.”

What was it with
this cat? I shook my head. There was no time to waste. I had to get my hands on
that crystal ball, plus it was opening day for A Dose of Darla.

After I got
ready, I grabbed a couple Ding Dongs, thinking this could be a stressful day
and walked toward Main Street.

I glanced over
at Mystic Lights. No thanks to Mr. Prince Charming, Madame Torres was going to
have to wait. I had to get this charm back to Belle.

Chapter
Eleven

“Good morning.”
Bella greet us when we walked in. Her store was so crowded. The customers were trying
on all sorts of jewelry. “How did you sleep?”

“Um. . .you
know, new place and all.” I shrugged. Did she really think I slept well? A
little thing called
murder
was on my mind. Plus I didn’t want to give
any details of my nightmare, even though I had to wonder if she could read my
mind. I took the dog charm out of my pocket and laid it on the counter. “I’m
afraid Mr. Prince Charming stole this from you.”

“He didn’t steal
it. I gave it to him and told him to take it to you.” She handed the lady next
to me a bracelet with turquoise stones instead of the jade stones.

“I think I like
the jade better.” The woman pushed the turquoise bracelet back towards Bella.

“No, you will be
much happier with turquoise. I promise.” Bella’s eyes twinkled. She picked up
the bracelet and put on the woman.

The woman gasped
in delight. She smiled at Bella. “I think you are right.”

Bella took the
woman’s payment, and she left as happy as could be.

“How did you do
that?” I asked in amazement. “How did you know she’d like the turquoise one
better?”

“It’s in her
stars.” Bella smiled, leaned over and whispered, “I’m the astrologer of the village.
You know horoscope and crystal reader.”

“Ahh.” I nodded.
Whispering Falls definitely had a lot of secrets for me to explore. “Back to
the charm. You told him to bring it to me?”

“Yes.” She
picked up a cleaning cloth and cleaned the jade bracelet before replacing back
in the jewelry case. “I wanted you to have it. Dog charms help prevent evil
spirits from attacking the living. Especially a spiritualist. And I have a
feeling someone evil is out to get you.”

First off, that
didn’t make me feel good at all, even though I’d been ignoring my intuition
that something evil was lurking. Secondly, Belle’s words weren’t much different
than Madame Torres.

“Out to
get
me?” I felt a little like Patience repeating Constance. “And what do my stars
say?”

She was a supposed
spiritualist, she should be able to tell me my future or if someone was out to
get me.

“Rules of the village,
no spiritualist can read for another spiritualist. You must figure your own
path.” She floated her hands around in the air.

I planted my
elbows on the case and put my chin in my hands. “I want my future to be normal
like two days ago. That is what I want.”

“That might not
be in your cards.” She smiled before she went on to the next customer. She
pointed over my shoulder, out the door. “I think you have a line at the door of
your shop.”

She was right. A
Dose of Darla had customers. Mr. Prince Charming and I hurried out and down the
street. There was money to be made.

I slipped into
the back door to get familiar with the shop before I opened it up to the crowd
outside.

With a deep
inhale, I unlocked the door. . .into my new life.

The line of
customers was a steady stream. Between answering questions and making up quick
remedies, I cleaned all the nook and crannies. Anything and everything that had
Darla’s handwriting on it, I tucked into a small box that I had found behind
the counter.

Nothing seemed
to bother Mr. Prince Charming. He found a nice comfy spot on the well worn
cushion on a chair behind the counter to sleep on.

It was assuring
that I was able to answer questions and mix up all sorts of remedies without
consulting Darla’s notebook as I had done in years past. It was all coming
naturally to me. Maybe I did have a knack for this spiritual stuff.

From the back
room, I grabbed of couple of ingredients and threw them in a mixing bowl. I
could mix and create while I answered questions.

“Can I help
you?” I asked the tall, dark man that had been waiting patiently in the corner
of the store as I mixed the remedy to treat hemorrhoids for a waiting customer.

“I’ll wait until
you are done.” He gestured toward my hemorrhoid customer.

I let the
ingredients mix, and added an extra spoonful of witch hazel. I picked out the
prettiest bottle to put the remedy in. If my customer had to have such an awful
sickness, at least she could enjoy the pretty bottle. Unlike the aluminum tubes
you get from a doctor.

The hour-glass
bottle had the loveliest green flowers glued all over it. But the elegant
flower glass cork was the added elegant touch.

“Beautiful,” the
woman gasped, gingerly taking the bottle from me.

“Follow these
directions to a tee, and you will never have an issue again.” I assured her
giving her a piece of paper that I had scribbled the directions on.

“Thank you,” she
whispered, touching my hand. “I don’t know what it is about this town, but I
always leave feeling so good inside.”

“Village,” I
corrected her. “We are a village that cares.”

The mysterious
gentleman stepped aside to make room for her to leave, and then stepped
forward. He glanced around the room before laying a brown package on the
counter.