A Charming Crime (4 page)

“What? Have I
offended you?” She stood up after the cat jumped out of her lap.

“You don’t know
anything about me. You don’t have any idea what I do or even the homeopathic
remedies I have and how they help.” I wasn’t about to agree to anything.

I wasn’t a
doctor or an expert in the field of homeopathic medicine. I relied on my
instinct and Darla’s book. That was it. If I opened a real shop and gave
someone the wrong dosage, I’d be in hot water. And that was something I tried
to stay out of.

As if she read
my mind, she said, “Yes, I do know what the berries from a Strychnine tree
smells like and what they cure.” Slowly she crossed her arms in front of her,
and Mr. Prince Charming did figure eights around her ankles.

Traitor.

“Helps with a
sour stomach.” She grinned, her snow white teeth glistened.

Damn!
I bit the
inside corner of my lip. She did get it right.

“What does Belladonna
cure?” I snapped my finger at her. Belladonna was an ingredient I had never had
luck finding.

“Ah.” She
planted her elbows on the desk and drummed her fingers together. “Are you
trying to trick me, June Heal? You’re going to have to do a lot better than
that.” She patted around her eyes with the tips of her fingers. She pulled a
container out of her desk drawer. “Belladonna is the main ingredient used in my
wrinkle creams.”

She handed me
the container, which wasn’t as nearly as cute as my bottles, and I read the
ingredients.
Right again.
“Where did you find this?” I had been looking
for Belladonna for years. The women at the flea market would buy that like
crazy.

“I will buy it from
you when you open the shop.” She stood up, and then patted her fingers around
her eyes. “It only takes a couple drops on your crow’s feet.”

“It only takes a
little dose,” Darla would say when she squeezed the berry between her finger
and thumb, letting the bitter liquid drip on my tongue. “Any more than that and
it’ll kill you.”

“June, are you
okay?” she asked. She stood over me. “We don’t have a doctor in Whispering Falls
and could use some of your expertise in the homeopathic field.”

She and Mr.
Prince Charming walked towards the front of the store and I followed them.

“Listen, I’m not
a doctor.” I felt like I needed to reinforce my non-doctor speech. “I’m just a
girl from Locust Grove trying to make a living selling stuff at a flea market.”

“As you could
tell when you drove into Whispering Falls, we are little, well smaller
than
your average village.” She twisted her arms and hands in the air, ignoring
anything I had to say. “We rely on the earth, nature, the universe to guide us.
Let’s say we are more on the spiritual side.”

For a moment, I
felt like I was talking to Darla again. She used to feed me that line of bull
when I was a kid. Even though I thought it was bull then, I had really grown A
Dose of Darla since I took over. Somehow the remedies I had come up with really
did work.

“Can I ask what
remedy you were working on when you blew up your shed?” She stood still. But
Ann’s stool creaked as she leaned a little closer.

“I have issues
with nightmares. I’m trying to come up with a cure to help me,” I whispered, a little
embarrassed to admit I was a grown woman who suffers from nightmares.

“Ah!” Ann
gasped, throwing her hand over her mouth. “Torres said nightmares.”

Did she say
Torres? I looked at the snow globe.

“Ann, can you
please go to the back.” Isadora’s eyes suddenly darkened and she sent Ann away.
“She suffers from nightmares, too. You could be such a help to us. Your friend
Oscar said you were looking to expand. I guarantee you will not regret moving
to Whispering Falls.”

She held the
papers out for me to take.

“Move?” My eyes
clouded over and I grabbed the counter.

“Yes. If you own
a shop in Whispering Falls, you have to live here.” She flipped a couple pages
in the packet and tapped Rule Number Two.

“I’ll let you
know.” I took the packet. I needed to get out of here FAST. “Come on Mr. Prince
Charming, let’s go home.”

“I’ll be waiting
to hear from you.” Isadora chirped as I walked out the green door.

“Excuse us.” A
couple of grey haired women scurried to the side of the steps to let Mr. Prince
Charming and me pass.

“Yes, excuse
us.” The shorter one giggled and practically hid behind the other one.

“So, sorry.” I
passed with the intent on reaching my car. . . fast.

“Are you sick?
Know someone dying?” I heard one of them call after me.

“Yes, is someone
dying?” the other one asked, almost hopeful.

Definitely an odd
question to ask someone you didn’t know.

“Nope, not that
I know of.” I brushed my bangs to the side so I could get a good look at them. No
turbans. Unfortunately, Mr. Prince Charming must’ve thought two was better than
one. He was doing double figure eights around their ankles. “Mr. Prince
Charming, stop!”

He moved faster
when I tried to pick him up. He was never this friendly to anyone other than
me.

“We like cats,”
the first one said, bending down and patting the ornery cat.

“Yes, we do.”
Apparently the second one repeated everything the other said.

I picked him up
anyway. I was increasingly becoming confused and the only way out was to get
out.

“I’m Constance Karima.”
She pointed to herself, and then to her twin. “This is my twin Patience.”

“Yes, I’m
Patience.” She giggled. Her green eyes sparkled as much as her teeth.

“Nice to meet
you.” I noted everyone’s fantastic teeth. I ran my tongue along my front tooth
that barely overlapped the other. You’d never notice unless I pointed it out.

Mewl.
Mr. Prince
Charming made his presence known.

“And this is Mr.
Prince Charming.” I held him tight to my chest in case he decided to jump down.
“Have a great day.

Constance
stepped in front of me, creating a sudden wind tunnel. Her red housedress
swooshed back and forth from the breeze.

“Oh, my.” She
picked at her short hair nervously. “So, are you sick?”

Mr. Prince Charming
kneaded my arms with his back paws.

“Hello, Karima
sisters.” The green door of Mystic Lights flew open with Isadora standing in
the shadow. “Please let our guest leave.”

Hiss, hiss.
Mr. Prince
Charming jumped down, and arched his back. He raced off and jumped in the back
of the Green Machine. Like a light switch had gone off, the wind stopped.

The Karima twins
tilted their heads and stared at Mr. Prince Charming with a scowl on their
faces.

“We were just
trying to figure out if he’s sick.” Patience’s long finger uncurled, exposing a
long black fingernail pointing towards my cat.

Hiss
sss.

“Yes, sick,”
Patience repeated.

Isadora’s A-line
skirt swayed as she gracefully walked down the steps, coming face to face with
me and the Karima sisters.

“You’ll have to
forgive my dear friends.” She stood between them, placing a hand on each of
their shoulders. “They own Two Sisters and A Funeral. The only funeral home in
town, and they are always looking for business.”

“No, someone’s
definitely sick.” Constance nodded to Patience who nodded to Izzy.

God, I hope I
was nowhere near death, even though my heart was about to pound out of my chest
from shear freaking out. Whispering Falls was definitely not for me.

“No one is sick,”
Izzy reassured everyone. Only it sure didn’t make me feel better.

“Wow, nice car,”
said a voice from behind me.

I spun around to
find an older gentleman with black coattails and a top hat checking out the Green
Machine.

“I haven’t seen
one of these since the eighties.” He ran his gloved hand down the side of it,
and then stopped when he reached Mr. Prince Charming, who was hovering in the
bed of the Green Machine. He took his hat off and bowed down. “Good day, sir.”

Meow, meow.

I winked at Mr.
Prince Charming. I had had enough too. It was time to go home and get back our
real life. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Oscar Park
and give him a piece of my mind.

When I turned
back around, everyone was looking at Mr. Prince Charming as if he was the first
cat they’d ever seen.

“I guess we
better go.” I finger waved, trying not to be rude.

“Very nice.” The
man reached out and touched the turtle charm dangling from my wrist. “Turtles
mean protection, and your cat seems to know it.”

Slowly I pulled
my wrist away from his fingers, causing the charm to slip out of his grasp.

“I guess you
could say that.” I covered it with my other hand, and brought it close to me.
“That’s how my cat got his name. He showed up on my tenth birthday with this on
his collar and has never left my side.”

“Hmmm.” He
scratched the right side of his mustache, and then pushed the round glasses up
on his nose. “I’m Gerald Regiula. I own The Gathering Grove. You should stop in
and have a cup. And bring your friend.” He glanced over my shoulder looking at
Mr. Prince Charming, who had jumped up on the Green Machine’s roof and began to
clean himself.

“Thank you.”
There wasn’t any more time for me to spare. I had already wasted the few
minutes I had been in Whispering Falls, when I should’ve been in Locust Grove working
on Darla’s Mr. Sandman’s Sprinkle.

“And, if I might
add, you should stop in Bellatrix Baubles.” He gestured down the road. “She has
some amazing charms to add to your collection.”

I followed
Gerald’s eyes because he wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to Mr. Prince
Charming. And for a second, I could’ve sworn I saw Mr. Prince Charming nod.

Chapter
Four

“Traitor,” I
scolded Mr. Prince Charming as I drove down the main street. I noticed the dash
clock read that I had been in the village for over three hours. I drummed my
fingers on the steering wheel. It didn’t seem that long. Just like when you
went to the circus. You’re there for a couple of hours, but you were so
entertained that it only felt like fifteen minutes.

Mr. Prince
Charming stared at me like he knew exactly what I was saying.

“You were the life
of the party.” Reaching under the driver’s seat, I pulled out a Ding Dong I had
stashed in case of an emergency. Hearing an evil spirit was after me definitely
qualified as an emergency. The foil crinkled as I unwrapped it, and Mr. Prince
Charming knew what was coming next. I tore off a piece of chocolate and fed
him. “You weren’t the same cat.”

Purr, purr.
He wiggled his
head under my hand and took the chocolaty treat.

We passed a few
more of the cottage shops. When someone rushed in front of the Green Machine, I
slammed on the brakes.

Mewwwwlll,
hissss.
Mr.
Prince Charming’s claws dug in the vinyl dash board where he caught himself.

“Sorry, buddy.”
Ducking my head around his hanging body to see if I saw anyone on the street.
There hadn’t been a thud, so I knew I hadn’t hit someone, but I swore I’d saw
someone.

Creak, creak.
A wooden sign
hanging from its hinges caught my eye. I gasped, threw the El Camino in park,
and jumped out, leaving Mr. Prince Charming in the car.

The sign looked
awfully familiar. Scraping the moss off the rotted sign, I gaped in wonder.

“A Dose of
Darla.”

No. It couldn’t
be. There was no way Darla had a shop here or any place other than the flea
market or I’d have known about it, though it
was
vaguely familiar. Kind
of like déjà vu.

I couldn’t
comprehend what was going on. Dizzy, everything spun around me. I held on to the
gate to keep from falling.

The sign hung in
front of a small cottage.

Two little windows
were covered in moss, and the rest of the outside was covered in the most
beautifully wisteria vine. The purple and white flowers grew up and around the
front door.

Cautiously, I
opened the front gate and moved in for a closer look. Wiping my hands across
the window, I took a quick peek inside; only it was too dark to see.

“Can I help
you?” Someone’s voice startled me, causing me to jump around, landing in my
best karate position. “Whoa. I’m only wanting to help.” The woman’s wonderful
low voice was soft and clear. She stood with her hands folded in front of her.
She wore a turban like Ann, but she was all smiles instead of snarls.

“Did you see
someone out here?” I did a 360 degree turn, keeping my hands in the air, just
in case I had to chop someone. I’d seen a man, not a woman with a turban on,
run out in front of me. I was sure of it.