A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) (7 page)

“Hmm…” I grabbed a few Mojo Bags and stuck them into my satchel. If what Raven saw was true and it represented what was to come, I’d like to give one of the Mojos to Ophelia to keep her safe.

Mojo Bags were my little creation in a drawstring bag that customers could take home with them to create a sense of wellbeing. Some of them are custom-made, but a general one for Ophelia would be good until I got to know her.

“Did you know she is a witch?” I asked.

“A witch?” Raven gasped, lifting her head off her hands. “Has there ever been a witch in Whispering Falls?”

Raven hopped off the stool and followed me to the door.

“Not to my knowledge.” I shook my head and flung the pack over my shoulder. It was time to go. There was a flurry of activity on the street from people rushing to the meeting and stopping to greet one another. “Now that we are an open community, I bet there will be all sorts of spiritualists coming in and out of this place.”

The bowl of crystals on the table to the right of the door caught my intuition. Crystals were used for many things in the homeopathic world. I grabbed the bowl and dumped them into my bag. They would make a great gift to give out for the villagers who came to the meeting, not to mention, I could rub them with some cedar or sage before I gave it to them. That way they could put the crystal in their store or in their home with the purifying agent to help with any evil that tries to come into our community. And the way things were going, I didn’t doubt that something was on the horizon.

I locked the door and pulled it shut.

“Lucky for us, you are in charge,” Raven said as we made our way into the crowd and up the hill to a waiting community.

Yeah, lucky for us.
There was a nagging doubt in my gut.
 

Chapter Ten

“Good evening,” I greeted everyone with a smile and raised my arms to the sky. It was my way of letting everyone know that the meeting was about to begin and they could stop gossiping about Alexelrod Primrose’s strange behavior.

The cloak that I had borrowed from Izzy was too long in the sleeves and torso, but it was going to have to do until I went shopping at Wands, Potions, and Beyond.

I reached into my bag, grabbed a couple of handfuls of crystals and stuck them in the pocket of the cloak.

Everyone stood around the Gathering Rock, forming a circle. They were shoulder to shoulder. I had never seen such a big crowd for a village meeting.

I laid the bundle of sage, sandalwood, cedar and Frankincense on the rock and lit it. I blew on the flame to create the smoke that was needed to fill the air around us.

Petunia Shrubwood stood next to Gerald with a scowl on her face, never once taking her eyes off of Patience.

Patience wrung her hands in front of her with her eyes closed as though she were praying.

I wasn’t sure who she was praying too, but I sent up a little extra whisper because I was sure Petunia had created a very strong case against Patience and wanted full punishment, which would allow Patience to stay in the community, but strip her from ever performing her spiritual powers in Whispering Falls.

“Good evening, Petunia.” I greeted her and pointed to her messy up-do with the eagle feather sticking out from the top of it. “Is that for me?”

She plucked it out of her hair and a little chipmunk scurried out and perched on her shoulder.

“I’m ready to get this over with and get rid of those animals.” Petunia handed me the feather that she was so gracious to give me for every smudging ceremony from the bald eagle that lived at Glorybee.

With the bundle lit, I walked along the inside of the circle and fanned the smoldering bundle with the eagle feather. I started from the head and worked my way down to the feet on every single person who attended the meeting. After each personal smudge, I took a crystal out of my pocket and rubbed it on the bundle before handing to them. Then I took the sage side of the bundle and gave them a quick wave with the feather.

The sage would help drive away any bad spirits that might be trying to hurt our little community. I made sure to look in everyone’s eyes to see if my intuition gave me anything, but it didn’t. Not until I got to Ophelia.

“You can pass me up.” She politely stepped back out of the circle and clicked her heels together. For a brief moment, our eyes met. I was determined not to blink or look-away, like the strategy I had when I was on the elementary school play yard in a mean game of stare-off. Ophelia didn’t budge. The only reason I quit was because I had a meeting to hold.

Once around, I stood in front of the Gathering Rock and waited for some of the community leaders, Gerald, Izzy, and Chandra, to take their places on the bench-style seating so everyone could be comfortable.

“Where’s Faith?” I mouthed to Raven. Faith was supposed to take notes and give a brief synopsis of the meeting in the morning paper.

Raven shrugged the old “I don’t know.” With or without her, I had to start the meeting.

The Marys floated on the outskirts of the meeting with their legs and arms crossed, taking everything in.

“Wow, this is a big crowd.” I didn’t want to be too formal. They knew me for who I was, not for someone I felt like I needed to be. “I would like to bring our first order of business to the forefront.”

Petunia fidgeted in her spot while Patience whimpered into the handkerchief in her hand.

“Petunia Shrubwood, can you please come forward and state your claim?” It was very difficult to sound so professional when it was in my nature to make everyone happy. Including the always crabby Karima sisters.

Petunia stood up, running her hands along the front of her skirt. She tugged at the hem of her shirt, pulling it down before adjusting the sticks in her hair. She walked forward to the small podium. A white dove flew down and rested on her shoulder.

I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a soul from the past. That was the thing with animals. When people died, their souls can sometimes came back in the form of an animal. A dove symbolizes love and peace, so I was sure that the soul that possessed the dove was a decent, caring soul who was looking out for Petunia.

“As you know,” she opened her hands in a gentle way toward the meeting space to address the attendees. The wind whipped and the leaves in the trees rustled back and forth. Petunia didn’t continue until the noise was clear, but that wasn’t going to happen until all of the animals surrounding us had circled the Gathering Rock.

Deer, squirrels, birds, and even moose had formed their own little meeting on the outskirts of ours.

Ahem
, Petunia cleared her throat. “As you know,” she started again, “I am the spiritualist that can talk to animals. By the looks of things, they think I have something to tell them.”

“Smiik, kiic, triic.”
Petunia threw her head back and made the worst sounding noise I had ever heard, causing the animals to scatter.

Everyone stared at the animals scurrying back to their homes in the woods that set just beyond the Gathering Rock. Again, we waited for the rusting leaves and hoof noises to stop before she continued.

“I’m sorry. I had to let them know it was a human meeting, not an animal one.” Petunia’s eyes sparkled as she talked about her gift, making me a little envious of her talent when all I could do was throw a few ingredients together. “A couple of months ago, several exotic animals showed up at Glorybee. None of them can talk to me so we can safely say they are not souls. Through endless searching with no luck, I have tried to find out where they have come from.”

As she told the community her story, which we all already knew, I carefully watched the Karima sisters. Patience kept nudging Constance with her chubby elbow while Constance continually shushed her silently with her hands.

“Anyway, there is this crazy ostrich that doesn’t like to be around the other animals.” Petunia turned toward me and the other council members. Softly she spoke, “I thought the ostrich was stolen. But I was quite wrong. The ostrich does not like being at Glorybee but loves Two Sisters and A Funeral. Patience Karima takes good care of the ostrich and will take full responsibility until I find the rightful owners.”

I slammed down the gavel before me. I had never used a gavel, but I have seen in many movies where the judge used one to make the audience come to order. Even though the meeting audience wasn’t rowdy, I wanted to slam the gavel to make a motion to throw out the claim that Patience Karima had stolen the ostrich.

Bang, bang, bang.
I secretly liked the feeling of the power behind that small hammer.

“You can stop the banging now.” Gerald reached over and touched my arm. “You have everyone’s attention.”

“Oh.” I giggled and stood back up. “Thank you Petunia for that bit of insight. We can move on to the next topic if that’s okay.”

Patience nodded her head so fast, I thought it was going to bounce right off her jolly shoulders. There was a smile planted across her face that puffed out her rosy cheeks.

“First, I’d like to officially welcome Ophelia Biblio to Whispering Falls.” I pointed the gavel in her direction, but she was gone. “Ms. Biblio?” I shouted over the crowd that had now turned their backs on me and were looking around for her.

“It looks like she didn’t hang around for the meeting.” Izzy stood up. “I haven’t seen her or Alexelrod Primrose for a while now.”

“That’s odd.” Gerald cleared his throat. “I thought Alexelrod would be front and center after the little stunt he pulled today.”

I glanced over at Gerald who didn’t look up at me. I leaned his way and whispered, “What did his leaves say?”

“He’s dead!” A woman’s voice screamed from Main Street, echoing all the way up to the Gathering Rock. “Help! He’s dead! Alexelrod Primrose is dead!”

Chapter Eleven

“Clear the way.” Officer Gandolf ordered as he cleared a path on the steps of Ever After Books where Alexelrod Primrose was laying stone dead. This time Officer Gandolf wasn’t as gentle as he yelled in his baritone voice, “Clear the way!”

Sirens blared as the Two Sisters and a Funeral hearse roared down Main Street. The crowd scattered like flies trying to get out of its way. Constance Karima didn’t care who she ran over because it would be a score for her. Just another fresh body to bury and keep her in business.

“Out of the way! Fresh body!” Patience had her head stuck out the window shouting to the crowd, the ostrich’s head stuck right out there beside hers.

The hearse came to a roaring stop. Constance jumped out and flung open the back door to retrieve the gurney.

Patience and the beady-eyed bird stood next to her. Patience repeated, “Umm hmm, fresh body!”

The gurney clicked once it hit the ground.

My heart sank when I realized that Alexelrod really was dead. Bella, Petunia, Faith, Raven, Izzy and I stood down the sidewalk with our heads bowed, not a word spoken between us.

“I can’t believe I found him.” Tears dripped down both sides of Faith’s face.

My gut told me this was not an accident, but I wanted to believe otherwise until something was confirmed.

“Something isn’t right around here.” Chandra Shango walked up, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “Do you think he is really dead?”

“By the looks of it, yes.” Izzy nodded toward the bookstore. “He isn’t moving.”

“He was such a nice guy. Always so helpful when I was looking to open Wicked Good and needed a great space.” Raven shook her head.

Sadness laid heavy on all of our hearts…all except for two. The Karima sisters, obviously.

“Coming through!” Constance barreled through the crowd in front of Ever After Books, slamming the gurney into the gate like a battering ram. The ostrich ran right behind. The gate flew. Patience didn’t miss a beat when the gate flung back and hit her in the booty.

I rolled up on my toes to see above the crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle, only to roll back down when my intuition told me that someone or something was watching me. My eyes gazed up the side of the building and stopped when I saw the curtain from the window on the second floor move slightly. Someone was looking down at the commotion and I couldn’t help but think it was Ophelia, only I couldn’t make out if it was or not.

The curtains closed when the person saw me looking up. My attention was then turned back to Ever After Books where Gandolf was talking to one very upset Faith Mortimer. Though this was out of my jurisdiction and had nothing to do with being Village President, I still made my way up to where the Karima sisters had already thrown a sheet over poor ole Alexelrod’s body.

The ostrich pecked at the sheet with its beak. Patience tried to shoo him away, but he started pecking at her. It would have been a comical scene if Alexelrod wasn’t lying there dead.

I still couldn’t believe he was dead. My eyes filled with tears when I caught sight of his long black trench coat. He was a good man and a good realtor.

“Looks like we are going to have to figure out what killed him, sister.” Constance Karima pulled back the white sheet. Her face scrunched up in scowl. “Look at that ear.”

I tried to get a quick look, but Patience stepped in the way, causing my eye to venture down to her feet. She stood on the step leading up to the shop, right next to the flowerbed where Ophelia had neatly planted two berry bushes and some rainbow daisies. It wasn’t the flowerbed or the daisies that caught my eye. It was the book that was lying under a bush. Its corner was barely visible to the naked eye.

“Is there anything I can do?” I walked between the Karima sisters and put my arms around both of them. I didn’t want to mention that it was probably a heart attack from the stress of him trying to stop Ophelia from opening Ever After Books this morning.

Constance shrugged me off. “What is wrong with you June Heal? This here is a murder investigation, in case you can’t tell.”

“Murder?” I looked around to make sure no one was looking as I stuck my toe behind me and gently nudged the corner of the book a little further under the bush. “Aren’t you taking this murder thing a little too far? We don’t want to alarm the citizens that there may be a killer on the run.”