Leighann Dobbs - Mystic Notch 01 - Ghostly Paws (23 page)
Read Leighann Dobbs - Mystic Notch 01 - Ghostly Paws Online
Authors: Leighann Dobbs
Tags: #Mystery: Cozy - Paranormal - Ghosts - New Hampshire
“And he broke into Willa’s house for the same reason,” Josiah added.
“That’s right. Maggie had picked up a box of books for me, and inside I found a photo album of the Bates family. When I brought it up to the Bates’ house, Carson wanted to know if there were any other books in the box with it.
“I’d told him I’d left the box at home, but made a pit-stop that afternoon to bring the box to the store. Carson wouldn’t have known that, though. He would have thought they were still at my house.”
“Well, it’s an interesting mystery, but I’m glad it’s solved.” Josiah looked at his watch. “And now, I must mosey off to the barber.”
He nodded at us and turned to leave.
“We’ll walk with you,” Cordelia said. “Hattie needs to stop in the fudge shoppe.”
“Not just me.” Hattie swatted at Cordelia’s arm. “You ate all the penuche last time.”
I smiled as the three of them walked off, leaving me standing on the sidewalk with Bing.
Bing cocked a bushy eyebrow at me. “So, you don’t remember much about what happened at the Bates mansion?”
I shook my head. “Not really, but there is one thing I remember. That old book … were you looking for it too?”
“I looked all over town for it.” Bing shifted uncomfortably then leaned closer to me. “We have to make sure it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.”
“You looked all over town?” I narrowed my eyes remembering how I’d passed him on the road on my way to Barry’s. “So that
was
you at Barry’s house the other day!”
“Yes,” Bing said, then held up his hands at my look of alarm. “I wasn’t the one that hurt him, though. I was there in time to save him. It was Carson that knocked him out. He was there looking for the book.”
I remembered how Barry had said the books were out of order in the box. And Carson lived further out than Barry so I wouldn’t have passed him on the road.
“What’s so important about this book, and why do you want to keep it from Carson?” I asked Bing. “I thought the Bates’ had it to begin with and Felicity sold it off by mistake.”
Bing pressed his lips together. “Apparently, Felicity didn’t realize the value of what she’d sold. She always was kind of ditzy and old Idris doesn’t keep her well-informed. Anyway, as you know, the book wasn’t at Barry’s. He should suffer no ill effects from his fall.”
“That’s right. The book was in the box Maggie had left on my porch. The one with the Bates’ family scrapbook.”
“We searched all local book acquisitions and even your home earlier, but that must have been before Maggie dropped the box off.”
My brows rose. “You searched my house?”
Bing looked at me apologetically. “Now, don’t get all upset, we were just trying to nip things in the bud before everything blew up … no pun intended. You never even knew we were there, and of course we would never do anything to hurt you.”
“But when did you do that?” The memory of the night of deep sleep after eating Elspeth’s pie surfaced. Was Elspeth in on this? She certainly did have some unique qualities, like conjuring up butterflies, and she did seem to have an odd way of understanding animals. “I don’t understand … who is this
we
you keep talking about and what is this really all about?”
Bing took a deep breath. “You’ll understand all that in time, Willa. For now, you know what you need to and Mystic Notch will go on as it has.”
A warm smile bloomed on Bing’s face as he surveyed Main Street, but I hardly had time to notice. A swirly mist had started to form outside the shop door and that could only mean one thing.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I must be going,” Bing said, pulling my attention from the mist long enough to see him start across the street. “See you tomorrow, Willa.”
“See ya.” I wasn’t satisfied with his lame explanation, but didn’t have time to go after him. I turned my full attention on the mist discovering, much to my surprise, there were two figures.
As the ghosts started to solidify, my attention was pulled away, yet again, by the trio of women walking down the sidewalk toward me. Pepper and Elspeth walked toward me side by side with, much to my dismay, Ophelia Withington following behind them.
“Pandora, it’s so good to see you all fixed up!” Elspeth kissed Pandora on the head and tweaked her tail. Pepper rubbed her neck.
Pandora, her eye on the mist swirls that only she and I could see, wriggled in my arms to get down. I gently placed her on the ground.
“And it’s good to see you all fixed up, too.” Elspeth gestured toward my bandaged hand.
“Yes, I was pretty lucky,” I said, glancing toward the misty swirls.
Pepper hugged me. “I’m so glad nothing bad happened to you.”
“Thanks,” I said to Pepper, then slid narrowed eyes over to Opheila. What was
she
doing here? I hoped she wasn’t going to cause some kind of trouble about me having Pandora in the bookstore.
“Mew.” Pandora, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have any worries as she batted and swirled at the misty figures. My brows pulled together … was that Robert Frost and Franklin Pierce?
It was! Which was odd, because the two of them never left the bookstore as far as I knew.
“Willa?”
I turned back to Elspeth and Pepper. “What?”
“I was just saying that Striker did a great job with your hand,” Pepper gave me a knowing look and I felt my cheeks burn.
“Yes, he did.” I glanced nervously at Ophelia who alternated between casting strange glances at Pandora and fiddling with something under the lapels of her wide red cape that flapped in the wind.
“That’s my cat, Pandora,” I said glancing back to see Franklin Pierce poke playfully at the gray cat. “She’s not feral.”
“Oh, dear, Willa. I’m afraid you might have heard the worst about me.” Ophelia pressed her lips together. “I must apologize for acting so badly, but you see, I just wasn’t myself.”
“Yes, it seems Ophelia has come to a new understanding.” Elspeth stepped aside as she said it and I noticed that whatever Ophelia had been doing under her cape involved something furry.
A head popped out of the top of her cape and I gasped, recognizing it as the black and white kitten with the tattered ear.
“You adopted a cat?” I stared at Ophelia incredulously.
“Yes!” Ophelia beamed, as she cooed to the little kitten snuggled inside her cape.
“It seems Ophelia had a change of mind about the feral cats,” Elspeth said. “She even donated some money to help fund the shelter.”
“I wonder what changed her mind,” Pepper cut in, raising a brow at me and purposely taking a sip of tea from the china cup she’d brought with her.
My eyes slid from Pepper to Ophelia and back again. Had Pepper’s tea concoction really changed Ophelia from nasty to nice? Maybe there was something to Pepper’s herbal obsession, after all.
“Not only that, but did you hear? The library is donating the sale of one of the bronzes to help build a new shelter for the feral cats.” Elspeth said. “Lavinia would have liked that.”
I remembered Lavinia telling me that Ophelia had scoured the library already. I’d thought she’d been looking for the bronzes, but I guess it had something to do with cats. Or maybe she thought Lavinia was hiding information about the cats there … either way, it didn’t seem like it mattered much now.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another swirly mist starting to form over by the door. It was Lavinia … and she had luggage. I watched as she pecked Robert, then Franklin, on the cheek. Then she turned to me, mouthed the words ‘thank you’, bent down to pet Pandora and promptly disappeared.
Robert and Franklin looked sad for a few seconds, then Franklin put his arm out, gesturing for Robert to precede him, and the two of them disappeared back into the bookstore, leaving Pandora frowning at the closed door.
“Well, we’re off to get cat supplies.” Elspeth started down the sidewalk.
“I do hope we can be friends now.” Ophelia stuck her hand out and I shook it.
“Sure,” I shrugged at Pepper who favored me with a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile.
A sheriff’s car pulled to the curb with Striker at the wheel.
“Hi, Eddie,” Pepper waved at him, then turned to me. “Gotta get back to my shop. See you later.”
She wiggled her eyebrows at me before turning and heading off in the direction of her shop. I walked toward the car, Pandora at my heels.
“Hey, Chance.” Striker smiled the smile that made his dimple show up and my heart fluttered.
“Hi.” I smiled back remembering our kiss.
Pandora meowed and Striker leaned his head out to look down at her. “Hello, to you, too.”
We stood there awkwardly for a few seconds. We hadn’t really had a chance to talk since that kiss and I felt unusually tongue-tied. My thoughts turned to his shoes. I never did apologize for throwing up on them.
“Listen, I wanted to say how sorry I was for ruining your shoes the other day when I … you know.”
Striker laughed. “Oh, don’t worry. Something tells me you’ll have plenty of chances to make up for it.”
And with that he winked and drove off before I could say another word.
“Meow.” Pandora rubbed her face against my ankle and looked up at me, her intelligent eyes taking on more of a green tint in the bright sunlight.
I stared down at her. It almost seemed as if she was trying to tell me something, and I wondered, not for the first time, if my cat knew more about what was going on, than I did.
The End.
***
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A Note From The Author
Thanks so much for reading my cozy mystery “
Ghostly Paws
”. I hope you liked reading it as much as I loved writing it. If you did, and feel inclined to leave a review, I really would appreciate it.
This is book one of the Mystic Notch series.
I plan to write many more books with Willa, Pandora and the rest of Mystic Notch. I have several other series that I write, too - you can find out more about them on my website
Also, if you like cozy mysteries with ghosts, magic and cats, then you’ll like my book “
Dead Wrong
” which is book one in the Blackmoore Sisters series. Set in the fictional seaside town of Noquitt Maine, the Blackmoore sisters will take you on a journey of secrets, romance and maybe even a little magic. I have an excerpt from it at the end of this book.
This book has been through many edits with several people and even some software programs, but since nothing is infallible (even the software programs) you might catch a spelling error or mistake and, if you do, I sure would appreciate it if you let me know - you can contact me at
Oh, and I love to connect with my readers so please do visit me on facebook at
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About The Author
Leighann Dobbs discovered her passion for writing after a twenty year career as a software engineer. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband Bruce, their trusty Chihuahua mix Mojo and beautiful rescue cat, Kitty. When she’s not reading, gardening or selling antiques, she likes to write romance and cozy mystery novels and novelettes which are perfect for the busy person on the go.
Find out about her latest books and how to get discounts on them by signing up at:
Connect with Leighann on Facebook and Twitter
http://twitter.com/leighanndobbs
***
More Books By Leighann Dobbs
Blackmoore Sisters
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Lexy Baker
Cozy Mystery Series
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Or buy the books separately:
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Kate Diamond
Adventure/Suspense Series
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Contemporary
Romance