Witch at Heart: A Jinx Hamilton Witch Mystery Book 1 (The Jinx Hamilton Mysteries) (17 page)
Read Witch at Heart: A Jinx Hamilton Witch Mystery Book 1 (The Jinx Hamilton Mysteries) Online
Authors: Juliette Harper
L
ate Saturday afternoon
, Sheriff Johnson walked in the front door of the store. Chase, Tori, and I were all sitting in the storeroom talking, so we invited the Sheriff to join us. I had to stifle a giggle when Rodney discreetly disappeared between his liniment cans.
“I just wanted you to know that all of the girls have been identified except the one Evers thinks was a runaway,” he said.
Twenty-Five. She said she was taken because no one knew her name.
“Who was Jane Doe?” Chase asked.
“A young kid from Oklahoma City, Susie Miller,” the Sheriff said. “She was working her way across the country trying to get up to New York City. Had her heart set on being a model. She actually worked at the campground for a few days after Fiona saw her here in town. Evers hired Susie to clean up the bathrooms and the big party barn. WJ killed her when he was home from graduate school one weekend. I honestly don’t think the old man even remembered he actually knew her.”
Chase shook his head. He’d been none too thrilled when he found out we’d taken it on ourselves to go out to the campground. “You could have told me,” he said, sounding a little hurt. “I would have helped you.”
Now, listening to the Sheriff, Chase said, for at least the tenth time, “It’s a wonder that crazy old coot didn’t kill you both.”
“Amen to that,” Johnson agreed, fixing me and Tori with a stern look. “I assume we’re not going to have any repeat incidents of this sort of behavior.”
“No, sir,” I said, holding up my hand as if I were taking an oath. “My amateur sleuthing days are over.
Yeah. Famous last words.
It took a couple of weeks, but the Town Square Association raised the money to buy Jane a new tombstone. The night after it was put in place, Tori and I went to the cemetery. We found the ghost standing there looking down at the granite slab with a joyful look on her face.
As we approached, she turned toward us and said, “My name is Susie Miller.”
“Hi, Susie,” I said. “Do you like your new marker?”
“It’s beautiful,” the girl said. “It has my real name on it.”
The Sheriff had done everything possible to locate Susie’s relatives, but her parents were both dead and there wasn’t any extended family. She really did belong to Briar Hollow now, so in Briar Hollow she would stay.
Colonel Longworth joined us at Susie’s grave. “Miss Jinx, Miss Tori,” he said, “would you do me the honor of walking with me?”
We fell in beside him, and once we were out of Susie’s range of hearing, Beau said, “The others have asked me to convey their thanks to you. Young Susie is so very happy now that she knows who she is. Although she, like the rest of us, cannot leave this place, she is at peace for the first time since her life was taken. You have performed a great kindness for her.”
I appreciated what he said and told him so, but I was still bothered by the fact that the cemetery spirits were trapped there. I had no answer for them, and I’d honor Aunt Fiona’s tradition of keeping them company, but I wanted to find a way to give them all the same kind of choice Beth had been given.
There was one loose end to the whole business that simply could not be tied up, however -- Twenty-Five. Earlier in the day, Tori and I returned to the clearing where her bones were discovered and once again encountered the angry spirit.
“Did you bring my body back?” the girl demanded, hovering menacingly in front of us.
“I told you last time that we didn’t take it away,” I said, holding up my hand in warning when her form started to pulsate. “And just hold it right there. No more of your tantrums. We came up here to tell you that the man who killed you is dead and his accomplice is going to prison for a long time. I’m sorry, but we still don’t know your name or how to get in touch with your family.”
“I told you,” the girl said fiercely, “I was
somebody
.”
“I know you were,” I said.
“But you won’t give me my body back,” she snarled.
“That’s not in my power to do,” I explained.
“Then you’re just as worthless as the rest of them,” the girl said. Around us that same chill wind picked up strength sending the dust around our feet swirling. When the wind died away, Twenty-Five was gone.
“And that would be one for the loss column,” Tori said.
“I know,” I said, “but there’s nothing we can do.”
After that experience, Susie’s positive reaction to her new gravestone and Colonel Longworth’s gracious appreciation on behalf of the whole cemetery population felt really good.
Back at the shop, Tori bedded down for the night on the couch, and the cats and I retired to the bedroom to read. After a few minutes, I felt the mattress sag a little and looked over the top of my book to find Aunt Fiona sitting at the foot of my bed.
“Well,” I said, “there you are.”
“Aw, honey,” she said, “you didn’t really need me.”
“So says you,” I grumbled. “I could have used a few hints along the way.”
“That’s why you have Myrtle and Rodney,” Aunt Fiona said fondly. “And Tori. I’m thrilled she’s going to be running the shop with you.”
“You like the coffee shop idea?”
“I love it!” she said. “And you and Chase McGregor certainly seem to be getting along.”
Studying my aunt’s face, I asked, “Are you spying on me?”
Chase and I had gone to dinner together the night before. At the end of the evening, as he was showing me the beautiful Civil War boots he was making for the Gettysburg film production, he suddenly looked at me and said, “Please don’t do anything dangerous like going out to the campground again. I can’t stand the thought of anything happening to you.”
“You can’t?” I said, my voice sounding a little breathless.
“No,” he said, taking me in his arms, “I can’t.”
I have mentioned that Chase is a good kisser, right? Like a really, really,
really
good kisser.
When I put the spying question to Aunt Fiona, she huffed up a little bit and said, “I prefer the word ‘observing.’” She was silent for a moment and said, “He’s a hunk, isn’t he?”
Rather than discuss Chase’s verifiable hunkiness with my dead aunt, I changed the subject, “So now what do I do?”
“You continue to learn and grow,” she smiled. “And you make a good life for yourself here in the store.”
“Did you have a good life here?” I asked.
“I had a
wonderful
life here,” she said.
Fumbling with the edge of the quilt on my bed, I said, “Am I getting the witch thing right, Aunt Fiona? I don’t want to let you down.”
“Oh, honey,” she said, “you couldn’t possibly let me down. You have the most wonderful heart, Jinx. You always have. And that’s where being a good witch starts, with a good heart.”
“Thank you,” I said. “For the store and for my magic and for being you.”
Aunt Fiona smiled again. “You’re welcome, honey,” she said. “Now,” she added briskly, “I have to go. I have people waiting for me.”
“There’s one more thing I want to know,” I said.
“What’s that, dear?” Aunt Fiona asked.
“Why couldn’t you solve the murders and help the girls?”
My aunt smiled at me. “Because I wasn’t as strong as you are, honey,” she said. “I could sense the evil, but I didn’t have the power of psychometry. I could never have attracted Beth’s attention and brought her spirit out of the forest or spoken with the hickory tree the way you did.”
“Really?” I said.
“Really,” she assured me.
“Will you come back?” I asked hopefully.
“Oh, yes,” she said, “I’ll pop in from time to time. Now, before I forget, be careful during the shop renovation. Myrtle likes things done a certain way.”
“What do you mean a certain . . . ”
But Fiona was gone. Seriously, after what we’d just been through, how hard could a little renovation work on the store be?
Note to self. Quit tempting fate with rhetorical questions.
T
his book is
the first
in
The Jinx Hamilton Mystery Series.
The next in the series will be
Witch at Odds
coming soon on Amazon.
Juliette Harper is also the author of
The Lockwood Legacy.
Six full-length books are currently available in that series including:
T
hese books may also be purchased
in two specially priced collections:
and
T
he Lockwood Legacy
includes
a companion set of short stories.
The first two installments are:
Langston’s Ghost: From Limbo to Lust
O
ther works
in Juliette Harper’s catalog include
the
Selby Jensen Paranormal Mysteries,
the
Study Club Mysteries
,
the
Fermata Post-Apocalyptic Series
,
and the
Before Series
of short-story romances.
T
he Selby Jensen
Paranormal Mysteries
T
he Study Club Mysteries
You Can’t Get Blood Out of Shag Carpet
T
he Before Series
T
he Fermata Series
J
uliette Harper is
the pen name used by the writing team of Patricia Pauletti and Rana K. Williamson. As a writer, Juliette's goal is to create strong female characters facing interesting, challenging, painful, and at times comical situations. Refusing to be bound by genre, her primary interest lies in telling good stories.
Six of Juliette's series are currently available. The best-selling
Lockwood Legacy
, is a nine-book chronicle of the lives of three sisters who inherit a ranch in Central Texas following their father's suicide. The first six novels appeared in 2015:
Langston's Daughters
,
Baxter's Draw
,
Alice's Portrait
,
Mandy's Father
,
Irene’s Gift,
and
Jenny’s Choice
. The seventh,
Kate’s Journey
, will be available early in 2016.
Descendants of the Rose
is the first installment of the Selby Jensen Paranormal Mysteries. The second book,
Lost in Room 636
, will also be available in 2016. Selby's business card reads "Private Investigator," but to say the least, that downplays her real occupation where business as usual is anything but normal.
And don't miss the hilariously funny "cozy"
Study Club Mysteries
, a light-hearted spin off of
The Lockwood Legacy
. Set in the 1960s, this series takes on the often-absurd eccentricities of small town life with good-natured, droll humor. The first book,
You Can't Get Blood Out of Shag Carpet
, is already listed in the Amazon store with
You Can't Put a Corpse in a Parade
coming soon.
Juliette has also made forays into the arena of short fiction arena with
Before Marriage
, a light, sweet romance and
Langston’s Ghost
, a short-story companion to
The Lockwood Legacy
books.
Fermata: The Winter
is the first in a four-novella post-apocalyptic survival series. Five years after an unknown virus divided the world into the living and the dead, four survivors stumble into a winter sanctuary. Brought together by circumstance, but bound by the will to stay alive, a concert pianist and a girl from South Boston forge a friendship and a purpose to cope with their new reality.
Juliette’s newest series,
The Jinx Hamilton Mysteries
opens with
Witch at Heart
, a lighter paranormal tale featuring a heroine who possesses powers she never dreamed existed. Jinx has been minding her own business working as a waitress at Tom’s Cafe and keeping up with her four cats. Then she inherits her Aunt Fiona’s store in neighboring Briar Hollow, North Carolina
and
learns that her aunt has willed her special “powers” to Jinx as well. They say admitting you have a problem is the first step and Jinx has a major problem. She’s a new witch and she has no earthly clue what that means — until she’s given the opportunity to use her magic to do a good thing.
In Book 2,
Witch at Odds,
set to appear soon on Amazon, Jinx accepts her new life as a witch and is determined to make a success of both that and her new business. However, she has a great deal to learn. As the story unfolds, Jinx sets out to both study her craft and to get a real direction for her aunt’s haphazard approach to inventory. Although Jinx can call on Aunt Fiona’s ghost for help, the old lady is far too busy living a jet set afterlife to be worried about her niece’s learning curve. That sets Jinx up to make a major mistake
and
to figure out how to set things right again.
