A Charming Spell (Magical Cures Mystery Series) (8 page)

I knew one should never assume someone was murdered and also not to freak out an entire community. Besides, Alexelrod was a good man. Who would want him dead?

The curtain in the window swung open, sending my eyes upward. There was no one there.

“Look here.” She pulled back the sheet, and as sure as I was standing there, Alexelrod Primrose had indeed met his maker. She pointed to the swollen red marks just below his ear lobe on his neck. “It looks like he got a bug bite and died. It could happen.” Her brows lifted, and her neck skin waddled as she nodded.

“Hmm…” I looked closer at the two spots. There was no way that they could tell if that was an insect bite. “It looks like zits to me.” Not that I was making light of the situation, but the Karima sisters had to be stopped from speculating out loud.

The crowd was already whispering about a murderer on the loose. I even heard the words serial killer from a few audible whispers.

“Zits.” Patience cackled, abruptly stopping when Constance shot her
the
look.

“Grown men don’t have acne.” Constance lifted the gurney and without warning, she rushed Alexelrod’s body to the hearse.

“Yes they do,” I whispered under my breath. I had several clients who had adult acne, but wasn’t going to discuss it further with Constance. Besides, she was already knocking people out of the way with the gurney. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Alexelrod. He wouldn’t want the village to see his lifeless body thumping and bumping down the sidewalk.

Everyone was too busy watching the Karimas and their circus act to see me reach down and pick the book up out of the bushes. I wiped the dust off the front covers.

“Mysteries and Magical Spells,” I sucked in air and tucked the book up under the cloak I still had on from the council meeting when someone called my name.

“What did you say?” Gandolf walked over and stood in the spot where Alexelrod’s dead body had been, sending chills up my legs.

“I just can’t believe it.” I shook my head playing off the little treasure lying just behind the cloak. “He was such a nice man. I really can’t believe he is gone.”

“Well, if this is murder, we are going to have to keep it hush hush within our community.” He cast down his eyes. “I’m going to have to expect nothing less than full cooperation from the council.”

“Nothing less,” I assured him. I shifted my body to my left side to help juggle the book in a comfortable position.

I tried to shoo the pesky ostrich away as he continued to jab his pointy bill at my feet.

Gandolf’s curious eyes looked at the bird, and he muttered, “Crazy thing.”

The bird popped his head up. There was something shiny sticking out of his mouth.

“What in the world?” Gandolf put his hand out. The bird dropped the object into Gandolf’s hand. He held it up to the sunlight to get a better look.

Evidently that wasn’t good enough. He pulled a small pair of reading sunglasses from the front pocket of his Whispering Falls uniform and put them on. He pulled the object closer to his eyes. Putting it to his nose, he took in a big whiff.

My heart stopped when I got a good look at it. “Is that a dart?” I tried to steady my shaking hands and voice.

The Karima sisters and I stood still; the crowd was silent. Everyone waited to see what Officer Gandolf had to say. The bird even stood still like he was a proud peacock.

“Yes! It’s a poison dart and it’s filled with poison!” He lifted the dart in the air for the gathered crowd to see. A collective gasp ripped through the crowd.

Constance Karima whipped out a clear baggie with the word
evidence
written in big black bold letters across it. This was right up her alley.

“Are you sure?” I tapped Gandolf’s forearm. There was no reason to alarm anyone if it wasn’t truly murder.

The ostrich pranced back and forth. It’s head jabbed into the bushes coming back up with another dart.

“Positive,” Gandolf confirmed when the bird gave him the second dart. “Two holes. Two darts. And blood.” He pointed to a little spackle of blood on the sidewalk.

“So much for keeping it under wraps,” I murmured under my breath.

The crowd was no longer in a hushed whisper. They were more like a gang of gaggling geese, all taking at once.

Patience Karima took the yellow crime tape and not only draped it across the Ever After Books front door, but looped it around every inch of the outside of the shop. Ever After Books was now a full-on crime scene.

Chapter Twelve

On my way into the shop the next morning, I couldn’t help but notice how thick the fog was that made a quilt-like blanket over the entire community. Not only was the village in mourning, so was the land.

Alexelrod was the realtor to many spiritualist communities and traveled all over. He was liked by so many people.

If he had been murdered, as Gandolf believed, it could take months to visit all of those communities and interview potential suspects or witnesses. Unfortunately, murder wasn’t good for a business community. Who would want to come to shop where there might be a murderer on the loose?

Though Gandolf was in charge, I still felt it was my duty to do a little investigating myself, only to see what I came up with.

There was a lot that I needed to do today, which was great because it would make my day go faster, and I was really looking forward to my Chinese takeout date with Oscar tonight.

I made a quick to-do list, but it became a to-see list before I headed off to work. Murderer or not, the village shops still had to open for business.

I glanced at my list one more time before I put it in my purse. Gerald and Raven were at the top. Each of them had seen something and neither wanted to tell.

I flung my bag over my shoulder and headed down the hill. Mr. Prince Charming darted in and out of the fog like he was chasing a string. The fog parted as he ran, leaving me a good path to see my way.

“Good fairy god-cat!” I yelled after him.

The fog might detour some of the tourists from coming into town, which would be fine with me since I had to get through my to-see list. I also wanted to keep working on a cure for Oscar. Plus I still had the “Mysteries and Magical Spells” book I had found outside of Ever After Books to thumb through before I gave it back to Ophelia.

Just as I was about to unlock the gate of A Charming Cure, I heard a little scuffle on the other side of the street, but couldn’t see through the fog.

“June.” Someone called out.

Instantly, a small circle of fog lifted and Ophelia was standing in the center.

“Hurry.” Her eyes glowed red in a worrisome sort of way. She waved faster. “Now.”

There was a purple orb floating to the right side of the gate in front of Ever After. The fog lifted with each step she took until she leapt into the orb, sending a swirl of gold like one of those childhood kaleidoscopes.

“Come on June.” Ophelia’s voice echoed into the air.

Without giving it much thought, I jumped through the small purple opening when the gold stopped spinning, landing right smack dab into what looked to be a bookstore. I quickly ducked when a book with wings flew right over my head.

“Oh my…” My mouth dropped when the book soared through the air and landed on a bookshelf right before another one took off, and then another, and another. It was like I was in the movie
Birds
, but it should be titled
Books
.

“As you can see,” Ophelia’s high-pitched voice was even higher. She lifted her hands in the air. “We have had a disturbance today and we don’t do well with that.”

“What disturbance and what kind of shop is this?” I was beginning to wonder if Alexelrod was right. Ever After Books didn’t belong in Whispering Falls. Or if I would have listened to him, he might be alive today.

The books swirled, dipped, and dove throughout the colorful shop. The wings of the books resembled the petals on the daisies in the flowerbed outside of the shop. There was a lamppost at the beginning of each aisle, filled with books.

In each corner of the store were big comfy couches with large fluffy pillows and baskets of snuggly blankets in all sorts of bright colors.

“It’s my bookshop.” She tossed her curls behind her head and walked ahead of me. “It’s full of magic when no one who isn’t spiritual is here.”

I followed her, making sure to keep an eye out for the flying books.

“And I’m afraid it isn’t looking too good for me or Ever After with that dreadful man found dead on my steps.” She stopped, turned, and drummed her fingers. Her eyes narrowed and her back became ramrod straight. “Am I right?”

“Is this what you wanted to see me about?” I ducked, barely missing having my head detached.

“It is.” She gestured for me to follow her. Her long black nails scraped the air.

“Alexelrod was hardly dreadful.” I wanted to make sure that I made that clear with her, even though I was sure his dying wish was to run Ever After Books out of Whispering Falls. “You didn’t know him. He was kind, thoughtful and very helpful to our community. It is I who should be questioning the reasons he didn’t want your bookstore to open.”

We proceeded to the back of the shop and through a door that opened up into Ophelia’s office space, which wasn’t much different than the actual shop. There were floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books and a long black desk in the middle of the room.

“I have no idea why he didn’t like me.” She stopped in front of one of the bookshelves. “He is the one who came to my spiritual village after I asked for a realtor and he showed me this place. Then I moved and he went all crazy. Then he was murdered.”

“Really?” Something just wasn’t adding up.

“Yes,” she said in a high-pitch voice. Her curls swayed back and forth as she nodded. “There are records of the entire transaction. But one of my books is missing and that is a key piece of evidence to his murder.”

“You have thousands of books here.” I pointed in the direction of the shop floor. “How could you possibly know that you are missing a book?”

The sign on the desk read
The Witch Is In
.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re a witch.” I pointed to her sign. “So snap your fingers and find the book.”

“Yes. You already know that I’m a witch from yesterday when I was in your shop.” She referred to the little incident at the store. “And you know they are going to go on a witch hunt because that man was found dead on my steps with the help of one of my books.”

“I don’t think I’d say that. There is no proof you killed…” I slapped my hand over my mouth. “Did you kill Alexelrod?”

“What do you think?” She stood with her hands firmly planted on her hips.

I was just about to tell her what I thought right before the bookstore door was busted down. We rushed out of her office to see what had happened. Gandolf bolted in with his gun drawn and waving around a book no bigger than the palm of my hand.

“By the order of the spiritual police in Whispering Falls, Ophelia Biblio, you are charged with the murder of Alexelrod Primrose.” Another younger police officer, who I had never seen before, was standing behind him. He was rolling his eyes as Gandolf’s baritone voice boomed, causing the books to go haywire. Everyone but Ophelia took cover. Gandolf ran behind a bookshelf and I hid behind him. I squeezed my eyes hoping nothing was going to whack me in the head.

“Stop!” Ophelia lifted her hands in the air. The books fell to the ground.

Once the coast was clear, Gandolf stepped out into the aisle waving the book like it was a white flag.

I reached into my bag without anyone seeing me and pulled out Madame Torres. Her hands were placed over her ears like she was trying to drown the craziness out.

“Listen to me.” I shook her.

“Stop,” she whispered. She could tell the severity of the situation. “I get motion sickness. Remember?”

“Sorry. But I need you to focus.” I hunkered down and held her close to my face, almost eye-to-eye. “You have to get in touch with Mac McGurtle. Tell him to come to Ever After Books immediately.”

Mac lived next to me in Locust Grove. Little did I knew that he was there to keep a spiritual eye on me. The village council sent him there to protect me in case I turned out to be a spiritualist. When they figured out that I did inherit my father’s spiritual gifts, they sent Mr. Prince Charming to protect me. Little did I know that they were Spiritualists. I thought Mac was just the nosy neighbor and Mr. Prince Charming was a stray cat, until I found out otherwise after I moved to Whispering Falls.

Since he no longer had to take care of me, he had started to practice spiritual law again and he was the one who helped me out of many crazy situations. I had no idea what the book was all about, but I did know that my intuition told me Ophelia didn’t have anything to do with Alexelrod’s murder. But who did?

“Is this your book?” Gandolf’s voice was courteous but patronizing. He held the book up over his head in a dramatic way.  “Answer me!”

“Yes.” Ophelia pinched her lips shut.

“Did you sell the book to anyone?” He continued to barrage her with questions as he opened the book. It was some sort of book you’d see, like a bracelet making book where all the materials were attached to make a bracelet, only this was about darts and it looked like the two darts were missing from their place.

“Don’t you dare answer his questions.” Mac McGurtle came through the door swiping the yellow crime scene tape out of his way. “And it is not appropriate nor acceptable for my client’s store to remain closed.”

“Who called you?” Gandolf pointed toward Mac, but didn’t wait for Mac’s answer. He gestured for the new cop. “Go on. Read her her rights.”

“Ophelia Biblio…” the young officer’s voice cracked as he fiddled with the piece of paper as he started to read it. “You have the right…”

“To open your shop!” Mac pushed his large black-rimmed glasses up on his nose with his thick fingers. His blue eyes zeroed in on the young officer like a vulture. “That is what you have the right to do until you hear from me. As for you, gentlemen,” Mac put one arm around Gandolf and another arm around the other officer and started to walk them out of the shop. “Don’t you have some suspects to track down?”