Witches and Whatnots: An Izzy Cooper Novel (11 page)

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I padded the mattress next to me. “Come and have a seat, Penny.”

The ghost made a move to sit on my bed but ended up falling right through it.

Gangster guy busted a gut laughing. “Leave it to a dame!”

Penny threw him a nasty look and stood up. Ignoring the rude man, she turned to me? “Why did that happen?”

“What is the last thing you remember?” I asked.

I was walking down the street, thinking that I had to be getting home before my dad got suspicious about my new job. The next thing I know, I am waking up in Founder’s Park and there were Halloween decorations everywhere. I must have fallen asleep again, because when I woke up, I was here.”

“I am sorry to be the one to tell you this … but you were murdered that night, and it was several weeks ago.”

“I’m dead!”

The expression on her face made it evident that she’d gone from confusion, to outright terror.

“If you calm down, you’ll probably see a light. That’s where you need to go. Everything will be fine, as soon as you go into the light,” I explained.

“But Dad! I have to talk to my dad first,” she cried.

“Hon … your dad misses you, but he’s doing fine and moving on. If you try and see him now, you’ll only make things harder on him.”

“You think?” she asked, a note of uncertainty in her voice.

I nodded. “Everything you have ever dreamed of is in that light.”

I sure hoped I was telling the truth. Really, I had no idea, but I liked to think I was telling it the way it was.

“Oh … I see a light now. In the window!”

Gangster guy looked at the window and shrugged.

Before he could say anything, I put my finger to my lips. The last thing I wanted was to distract Penny from the light.

She slowly began walking toward the window. “It’s so bright.”

“That’s because it is everything that is good,” I told her.

“Tell Dad I said hi … please.” She turned back to me.

“Sure.” I nodded.

In a blink of an eye, the light sucked her in.

“Well, that seemed easy.” The old lady in the retro dress commented.

“I want my mom,” red headed boy whined.

Taking a deep breath. I surveyed the five ghosts that were left. How was I going to help them, and catch a killer, let alone find Granny?

I had a feeling that the months ahead were going to be anything but easy.

“So what do ghosts usually do on Halloween?” I asked.

The little boy started crying again.

“Now look at that. You got the brat crying again,” gangster guy complained.

“I’m sorry,” I told the boy. “What is your name?”

“Co … Cole,” he muttered between huge sobs.

“Come here,” I said, adding a smile that I hoped would calm him.

He took a few steps until he was in front of me.

“What is the last thing you remember?”

The boy lifted his thin shoulders. “I don’t know.”

Hmm. This one might not be so easy. “Okay … well why don’t you calm down and think on it for awhile? Maybe it will come to you.”

“Okay,” he sighed. “Do you have any toys to play with?”

What was I going to do with these ghosts?

“No, but there is a big beach outside you can play on.” It was probably a bit nippy so early in the morning, but I didn’t think it would make much difference to the boy.

The expression on his face changed from fright to curiosity. Then he was gone, for the time being anyway.

As far as the others, I had no idea how to keep them busy until I could figure out how to help them.

But then an idea occurred to me. “If the rest of you aren’t busy today, how would you like to help out with a pumpkin walk?”

I figured adding a few scares from some real ghosts couldn’t hurt anything, as long as they didn’t give anyone a heart attack or make them wet their pants.

“But there are some rules,” I added.

Mob guy frowned. “I’m jumping to get out of this joint, but the door doesn’t work.”

“Why can’t you just walk through it?” I asked.

Shrugging, he walked to the door and put a leg through it. Turning back to me, he grinned. “I guess I should have tried that before.”

Delia didn’t seem too surprised to see me at Sunnyside again.

“How can I help you today?” she asked, her hands going up to adjust the pirate hat she was wearing as part of her Halloween costume. She was busy doing some last minute repairs on the strings of skull lights they had put up outside the main building.

“Sorry to bother you so soon, but I need to ask you some questions about one of your residents.”

“Why not? I’m beginning to think we are running a serial killer farm here anyway.”

It was apparent that she was getting irritated with the situation, but I wasn’t sure if it was with me, or the residents.

“Betty Hansen. What can you tell me about her? I know she is a resident here, right?”

Delia shook her head. “She
was
a resident here. Betty checked herself out a few weeks ago. Said she was going to stay with a niece in New York.”

I was stunned. This meant that Tanna really could be Betty Hansen, only a much younger version.

“Did you ever notice anything odd about Betty? Could she have been a succubus?”

Delia shook her head. “I really can’t tell you. Detecting one of those isn’t easy. Most of the time you will never know until it is too late.”

“I see.” I bit at my bottom lip while trying to think if there was anything else I needed from Delia. I couldn’t think of anything, at the moment anyway. “Well thanks, and sorry to bother you.” I started to leave, but turned back. “By the way, your skull lights are going to rock.”

“Humbug. Halloween is a pain in the ass, but the residents love it.” She waved back as I was leaving.

Delia was really a nice lady. I hoped I had someone as sweet to look after me when I was old.

* * *

If I didn’t stop laughing and come up for a breath soon, I’d end up peeing my pants. Tim was in a devil costume, which did nothing to harden his innocent - childlike features, but it was Ayden who had me rolling in laughter.

The boss man was dressed as Robin Hood, which just wasn’t him. He wasn’t merry at all, and he wasn’t the outlaw type either. I had serious doubts he’d ever done anything against the law, even jaywalking.

“That’s enough.” Ayden glared. “I’m glad you are so amused since we still have a killer hunting the island.”

“Sorry, but I can’t help it,” I giggled, though I was really trying to bring my laughter under control.

“I want you both to hit the pavement today. Talk to everyone. See if you can find anyone who remembered seeing who the mayor or fisherman was with,” Ayden instructed, while trying to ignore my rude giggles. “Whoever the woman is, she is key to this case.”

Finally, I was calm enough to get down to business. “I think I might have a link to the Black Moon Witches.”

I told them about the picture and Betty Hansen, and how I suspected she was actually the Black Moon Witch, Tanna.

“But doesn’t she have brown hair? Witnesses claim this woman is a blond,” Ayden pointed out.

Dang … he was right about that. “Well, it’s worth looking into.”

I still believed those witches were involved somehow. Maybe I just wanted to believe it because I didn’t like them much, but still, I had a gut feeling.

Waving to my colleagues, I left the office and made my way around the lighthouse to my car. It was a dreary - cloudy day. The thunder in the distance added to the ominous atmosphere.

Due to the fact that it was so cloudy, I was a little surprised to see my reflection in the car window.

That was strange. With the light being so dim, there shouldn’t have been much of a reflection.

But there it was. Unfortunately, it showed just how silly I looked in my own costume. I’d decided to dress as a forest fairy, which would have been good except for the fact that my black wings kind of overshadowed my fairy wings.

It was a good thing no one could see them but me.

Just as I reached out to open the car door, I caught a glimpse of something behind me. Although it was gone almost as soon as it appeared, I’d recognize it anywhere. It was that demon looking clown.

He was definitely after me. No doubt about it.

* * *

It was well past lunch and I hadn’t found anyone who knew about the blond woman. Straightening my fairy wings, I headed to the Grill. Elias had ruined my chili and skeleton bones meal the night before, so I thought I’d take another stab at it today. Maybe I’d even splurge and get cheese and garlic skeleton bones to go with my chili. Just thinking of lunch sent my stomach growling.

If I weren’t careful, I’d end up having to spend a month at the gym to counteract my Halloween eating binge.

There were so many people in costumes, I couldn’t be sure who I knew and who I didn’t know. I kind of hoped I wouldn’t run into any acquaintances. I wanted a quiet lunch for a change.

As soon as I got my chili, skeleton bones, and apple cider, I dug in, and actually managed to eat half my lunch before I got a text from Tim.

“Are you going back to the office before the pumpkin walk?”

The truth was that I hadn’t planned on it. Mostly what I wanted to do was get out of my costume.

I replied, letting him know I was going home first, and would meet him at Founder’s Park later. Just as I hit the send button, I felt someone touch my shoulder. Startled, I looked up to see Annabelle. It was unusual to see my sister eating out, unless it was her own business establishment.

“Hello, stranger.” She smiled. “Are you still mad at me?”

I shook my head. “I was never mad at you, I just think you might not know what you’re doing.”

I could have put it a little more elegantly, but Annabelle didn’t seem to mind.

“Oh I think I know what I’m doing, but since you had your NDE, you’ve changed. It’s like you are no longer connected to who you really are.”

Wait a minute! That wasn’t fair. I was still the same person; at least I thought I was. “I’m just worried about you, that’s all.”

“Well don’t be,” she said, draping her arm around my shoulders. “Those witches wouldn’t dare mess with me. I’m the wickedest witch on the island.” Her green eyes danced with laughter.

I could almost believe it. If there was something Annabelle wanted, she went after it, but I didn’t necessarily believe she was the evil kind of wicked. I hoped she was right and she knew what she was getting herself into.

After getting out of the costume and back in my old blue jeans, I felt tons better and was in a much better mood too.

When I left the house, the sun was just starting to sink into the western horizon. It would be dark in less than an hour. As an afterthought, I grabbed the book with Betty Hansen’s picture in it. Since I still had a bit of time before things started heating up in town, I thought I’d stop by the office to make some copies of the picture. Maybe I could hand copies out to the crowd. If Betty was involved, it was a possibility that someone might remember seeing her with one of the victims.

True, the new Betty, who called herself Tanna, wasn’t a blond, but she could have been wearing a disguise.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw Dorothy’s van backed in the handicapped spot, which was close to the ramp that allowed one to bypass the stairs up the hill to the lighthouse entrance. She was lugging pumpkins down the ramp and loading them in the van.

Grabbing the book from where it sat on the passenger seat, I ran over to see if I could help. “Are there any more up there?”

Dorothy shook her head. “This is the last of them,” she panted. “Sure wish you’d have shown up earlier.”

“Sorry. I was just stopping by to make some copies before heading to the park,” I explained.

Dropping the last pumpkin into her van, Dorothy ran the back of her hand over her forehead to wipe away the perspiration that had built up.

“Why didn’t someone come and help you get these?”

She was looking better than she had for a long time, but still not as spunky as she might have been twenty years ago.

“They’re all busy as bees.”

That’s when it struck me that Dorothy wasn’t a whole lot younger than Betty Hansen, so she might actually know the woman. Opening the book to the page with the picture, I pointed at Betty and asked, “Do you know this girl?”

Squinting, she studied the picture for a short time before nodding. “Sure … that’s Betty. She used to tend my brother and me while Mom worked nights at the fishery.”

“Did you know that until recently, she was a resident of Sunnyside? Delia claims she checked herself out and moved to New York.”

“It doesn’t surprise me.” Dorothy shrugged. “She always did dote on her kids.”

“The problem is, she looks exactly like Tanna … one of those women setting up at the Dell.”

A strange look came over Dorothy’s face and she glanced away. “Maybe this girl is a distant relative.”

“I don’t think so. She could be Betty’s twin. I think that Tanna and Betty are the same … and I think you know something about that.”

I hated to do it, but it was time to strong arm the older woman.

First she appeared alarmed, and then the blood left her face. Sighing, she sat in an empty space in the back of her van, letting her legs dangle to the ground. “The Black Moon Sisterhood is not exactly what they say it is.”

That wasn’t anything new. I’d figured that one out the moment I visited the Dell.
“What are they?”

“They are witches, but I’m sure you figured that part out already.”

I nodded.

“The girls up there are the same witches that fled the island after all those infants died, but it wasn’t because they had anything to do with that dreadful business,” she added quickly. “The people on Mystique Island were out for blood. Their only chance was to leave.”

“But how can they be the same witches?” I asked, taking a seat next to Dorothy.

“I don’t know the whole story … only what Betty told me, but during the dark ages Rayanne, who was known as Miranda Hubbard at the time, stumbled onto a spell that could reverse aging.”

“What kind of spell?” I brought my brows together.

“It involves S.E.X.” She spelled out the word with a whisper, as if she were worried someone might hear her.

“How?” This was getting more interesting by the minute. It just showed that sometimes the interrogation room wasn’t the best place to interview potential suspects and witnesses.

Her cheeks colored. It was obvious Dorothy wasn’t comfortable with the subject of sex. “At just the right moment you have to sprinkle moondust on them. Of course, it isn’t real moondust,” she explained.

Suddenly I wondered if whatever they were sprinkling on the victims could be causing their death.

“What is this moon dust made from?”

“Well, it is made from the ash of your hair, and skin cells, along with a magical incantation.”

“Hmm,” I expressed my doubt. “That doesn’t seem like it would be too toxic.”

“It isn’t.” She shook her head. “Moon dust is perfectly safe.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Again she blushed. “Well, I have been using it for awhile now … you know with my boyfriend Bill. I have his permission, of course,” she rushed to explain. “He seems just fine. It is my understanding that it only uses sexual energy.”

Dorothy’s explanation seemed reasonable enough, for a witchy kind of thing anyway. But what if one of the witches were taking it further? What if they were drawing on their target’s life energy?”

Sighing, I stood up. “We better get to the park.”

“What about your copies?”

Glancing down at the book I held in my hands, I shrugged. “I guess I know what I need to know about Betty.”

This was true. Now what I needed was to find out which one of the witches were going overboard with their moondust spell.

* * *

With all the Halloween decorations and glowing jack-o-lanterns, Storm Cove looked enchantingly spooky.

The pumpkin walk at Founder’s Park was cute, with children running along paths lit with glowing jack-o-lanterns, anxious to get to the next stop. At each stop, they would meet some new monster and get a new treat.

I walked by a trick or treat stop where a mermaid was encouraging the children gathered to fish for their treats with a makeshift fishing pole. The treats were hidden behind a
piece of cardboard, painted to look like waves. The mermaid was Ruth, the editor of the Storm Cove Herald. As soon as a child dropped a line behind the cardboard waves, she’d attach a package of gummy fish to the end and tug on it.

Unbeknownst to Ruth, mobster guy was standing next to her and blowing into her ear. Ruth couldn’t see him, but every once in a while she’d stop and look around. Frowning, she’d swap at the air, as if a fly were buzzing around her head.

Hmm, this wasn’t exactly the kind of spook tricks I’d meant. Any minute now I expected mob guy to begin molesting poor Ruth.

Shrugging, I turned away. At least he couldn’t really do anything to her. I didn’t think he could anyway.

I found Tim manning the stop sponsored by Pies & Stuff. He was handing out little apple tarts to the trick-or-treaters.

“Having fun?”

“Sure.” He smiled. “I love kids, plus this is a good location to see the rest of the park.”

He was right. From the little platform of fake fire he was standing on, he could see most of the other trick or treat stops. Now I realized why he’d dressed as a devil.

“So you had plans to help out with the pumpkin walk the whole time?”

Tim nodded. “I didn’t want to say anything. I thought Ayden would think I was wasting time.”

“The boss man is grumpy, but I don’t think he’s that grumpy.”

Looking around at all the festivities, I felt my heart grow heavy. Granny would have been right there in the thick of things. She loved Halloween. In fact, the whole island loved Halloween. It was one of the biggest celebrations on the island, for obvious reasons. Mystique Island could have easily changed its name to Halloween Island, and it would have fit perfectly.

As I stood there talking with Tim, I noticed a mummy lumbering down the path toward us. It wasn’t until the monster was a couple feet away that I recognized who it was from the visible parts of his face beneath the strips of white sheet.

“Sheriff … what are you doing dressed like that?” I laughed. “What if there is a bank robbery? You’ll never be able to chase the bad guy.”

“If only crime in this town could be that simple,” he grumbled.

I felt someone poke me in the back and spun around to confront whoever the jerk was that had dared to jab me.

The jerk was my Uncle Aaron.

He would have looked just like Dracula, at least he would have if the
old vampire had been fixated on 80s glam rock and had a slight weight problem.

I was a little shocked. This was the first time I’d seen Aaron at a town festival in years. He was usually too busy with his radio station. “Wow! What are you doing here? Who’s minding the station?”

“Malcolm is taking care of the station tonight. He owes me a favor.”

Turning to someone who had been lingering in the shadows behind him, he added, “Missy talked me into letting loose tonight.”

Missy stepped forward, but tonight she didn’t look like Missy. She was wearing some Mistress of the Dark costume, along with a long - black wig. Smiling, she eyed me warily. “I thought Aaron could use a night out for a change.”

My claws came out, as they usually did whenever Missy was present.

I made a conscious effort to retract them. After all, other than suspecting her of murdering her husband, and being a hose bag with my guardian demon, and now my uncle, I really had no reason not to like her.

“He needs to get out every once in a while,” I remarked.

Missy seemed genuinely surprised that I hadn’t verbally attacked her right away.

“Have you seen Annabelle tonight,” Aaron asked.

I shook my head. “I think she has a date with the Dell witches tonight.”

Aaron’s expression turned grim. “That girl can never stay out of trouble. I sure wish your grandmother were here. She seems to be the only one who can get through to her,” he grumbled.

It was true. Annabelle was headstrong, but Granny had always had a way with my sister.

“Don’t worry … I’m going to head to the Dell soon to make sure they aren’t up to no good.” Glancing down at my watch, I noticed it was almost 9:00 already. “In fact, I should be going.”

Turning to Tim, I asked, “Do you have this?”

He nodded. “Yeah, as long as the boss doesn’t ream me for handing out tarts, instead of roaming the streets to look for a killer.”

No doubt, roaming the streets to look for the killer was exactly what Ayden was doing at the moment.

“Okay … I’ll check in with you in a couple hours. If you don’t hear from me, get up there.”

“Will do.” Tim smiled.

Walking back to Pier Alley, where I’d parked Lady Luck, I noticed the old captain sitting on the park bench, staring ahead at something that was invisible to everyone else. In fact,
he
was invisible to everyone, except me, and possibly a few others who could see ghosts.

Sitting on the bench, I looked over at the captain. “I bet you could tell me a lot about what goes on around here.”

Nothing. No reaction at all. The old captain stared out at the bay, as if waiting for his ship to come in.