Cozy Christmas Crimes - A Cozy Christmas Box Set Read online

  I laughed nervously because I knew I hadn’t said Patrick’s name . . .or had I? I suddenly found myself all confused and unsure of what I was saying or had said. When Sassy and Pepper tugged on their leashes, my hand felt like it had no grip and gave way, allowing them to run over to Mr. Prince Charming. They stopped shy of his table and sat down. The three animals stared at each other. Odd.

  “That’s so strange.” I just couldn’t stop my thoughts. I shook my head and took the heart- shaped pastry. “I’ve never seen them do that. I mean,” I found myself stumbling for words. “I do help our local SPCA find homes for animals and they are around other animals. Including cats.” I took a bite to try to shut myself up, but I kept rambling. “They love cats, but I’ve never seen them just sit down like that before trying to sniff them out first.”

  “Everyone loves Mr. Prince Charming.” She cackled and abruptly stopped. It was as if time had stopped.

  I glanced over my shoulder and looked at the window to see Patrick and noticed people on the street were frozen in place.

  “I’ll take a couple of these to go.” I turned back around. I needed to get out of there. “Ma’am?”

  “Raven.” She snapped out of wherever she’d gone. “Raven Mortimer is my name. Nice to meet you, Roxy. Unfortunately, you had the one and only one of those I made, but I’d love to give you something extra sweet for you and your sweetheart to enjoy during your stay at the Full Moon Treesort.”

  “You know I’m staying there?” This was getting just plain creepy.

  “It’s the only place in town,” her black eyes stared at me, causing me to look away. “If you go straight down Main Street and hook a left next to the Glorybee Pet Shop, you’ll find a teeny-tiny road that will lead you right to the resort.” She held a box with the Wicked Bakery logo on it across the counter. “I really hope you enjoy your stay. I’m sure I’ll see you tonight at the tree lighting.”

  “Yes.” I patted my leg with one hand to call the dogs and took her to-go box with the other. “Thank you.”

  I let out a long sigh and shifted my eyes back and forth on my way out of the bakery as I tried to figure out what all just happened.

  “Are you okay?” Patrick asked after I’d gotten Sassy and Pepper in the car along with myself.

  “Yeah.” I blinked, knowing I had something to tell him but couldn’t quite remember. “She said to go straight down here and take a left past the pet store to go to the hotel.” I gulped, knowing there was more to be said, but not sure what. It was as though I’d lost my memory.

  Chapter Two

  June Heal

  “There you are.” The sound of my black boots ticked across the black and white tile floor of the Wicked Good Bakery. “You are an ornery cat,” I said to Mr. Prince Charming, my fairy god cat. My fingers flew down the front of my cape, unlatching the buttons until it was open in the front. I pushed back a strand of my short black hair and fluffed my bangs. “Have you been begging for food?”

  “I’ve always got a treat for him,” Raven Mortimer laughed from behind the counter. “Did you get the Whispering Falls Newspaper this morning?”

  The Whispering Falls Newspaper was delivered by Faith Mortimer, Raven’s sister. It wasn’t your typical newspaper that was printed on paper. It was carried on the breeze. Through the air. Only spiritualists could hear it.

  “Yes.” I nodded and took my cape off, hanging it on the coat tree next to the counter.

  You see, Whispering Falls was a spiritual community. And by that I mean all the shop owners have some sort of magical power we use for good. I’m a homeopathic curist. I make and sell potions at A Charming Cure, my shop down and across the street from Wicked Good Bakery. I also have a keen intuition that’s always on high alert.

  Raven has the gift of Aleuromancy. Messages and answers came to her in the form of her baking. The dough forms itself into shapes unbeknownst to her while little messages for incoming customers stick in the back of her head. Those customers always pick out the perfect pastry for them. Sometimes she could do reading like a medium, only the spirit wasn’t standing there like with most mediums.

  Today, Raven appeared to be baking up the storm.

  “The young woman Faith warned us about?” There was a worried look in Raven’s dark eyes as she handed me a cup of coffee and the box of cookies I would give out to my customers at my shop. “She was in here when the paper was being delivered. I was waiting for her with the perfect heart-shaped pastry. She ate it.”

  “Oh, good. What did the dough tell you about her?” I asked over the rim of the coffee cup I’d lifted to my lips. We’d been awaiting her arrival for a couple of months.

  “Her name is Roxy Bloom. She’s got two dogs. Very sweet, but very curious. She is so in love with her new husband of a couple of months, but the dough told me I had to keep her and her honeymoon alive. Meaning, more romance. There’s something that’s going to make her want to spend time away from him while they are here,” Raven’s voice trailed off.

  “Do you know what that is?” I asked and looked over when I heard Mr. Prince Charming jump off the café table. He scurried over and rubbed a figure eight design around my ankles with deep purring delight.

  “No. But I don’t have a good feeling.” Raven’s lashes swept down and created a shadow on her cheek. “The paper said she was nosy.”

  Rowl, Mr. Prince Charming growled. Something fell out of his mouth.

  “Is that. . .” Raven scurried around the counter and we both stood silently over my fairy god cat and the pig charm he’d dropped on the floor.

  I gulped, setting my cup on the counter, and rubbed my left hand over the charm bracelet on my right wrist.

  “A pig,” Raven gasped, drawing her hand up over her mouth.

  ”Greedy. Selfish.” The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.

  The door of the bakery flew open. Mr. Prince Charming took the opportunity to run out into the blustery winter day. I grabbed the pig charm, my cape off the coat tree, and the box of cookies from the counter, and went out after him.

  “June! Do you want your coffee?” I heard Raven call after me.

  “I’ll have it later!” I yelled over my shoulder.I swept the cape around me, knotting the fabric in a ball with the charm embedded in my palm and bringing the collar of the cape around my neck to help ward off the chill.

  The sidewalk was filled with tourists who were all excited about the shops opening for the day and the tree lighting happening that night.

  The banners on the carriage lights had snowflake patterns on them, with Whispering Falls embroidered across the bottom. Vibrant poinsettias spilled from the hanging baskets. Our little magical village had been transformed into a winter wonderland.

  Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding. The sound of a bell echoed as it bounced off the mountains.

  When I heard the familiar sound of Santa ringing his bell, I couldn’t help but smile. It was a sign that it was almost time for Christmas.

  I scurried across the street to put a few dollars in Santa’s red cauldron and say hello to Gerald, our spiritualist who took so much pride in playing Santa. Especially now that he had his own little son to dress in the jolly outfit for.

  “Ho, ho, ho. I know it’s not a kettle, but this is what they gave me.” The voice coming from behind the white beard didn’t belong to Gerald. He smiled showing a deep scar in his right smile line.

  My gut pinged, sending ice through my veins.

  I drew my hand and my donation back.

  “Aren’t you going to put some money in?” He asked, eyeing my fistful of cash.

  “Yes. Later,” I told him as I rushed past him, wondering if I should head straight over to the police station and tell Oscar of my chilly intuition.

  Oscar Park, who was my husband, a wizard, and the local sheriff, and I loved Christmas. Both of us grew up in mortal homes and found out about our true spiritual gifts as we got older. My parents had lived in Whispering Falls. I had moved to the neighb
oring town of Locust Grove with my mom after my father had passed away. Well, actually he had been murdered along with Oscar’s parents, but that’s something I didn’t like to think about.

  Mr. Prince Charming darted across the street. I winced and held my breath when a car driving very slowly down the road almost hit my fairy god cat. I let out a long sigh of relief when he made it across the street safe and sound.

  My eyes met the passenger’s eyes. A woman. She had lovely black curls and blue eyes. My intuition pinged and reminded me of the pig dream I’d had last night.

  “Roxy Bloom.” The heat of my whisper mixed with the cool winter air, creating a puff of smoke out of my mouth and making me forget about the fake Santa.

  The woman’s face froze, as though she could read my lips and was frightened. She jerked back into her seat and faced forward.

  “I look forward to meeting you.” I thought as the car passed me going towards the south side of the town. No doubt on their way to the Full Moon Treesort.

  “Scat, cat!” The Santa kicked a leg and shook his bell.

  Mr. Prince Charming was standing up on his hind legs batting at the Santa.

  “What’s wrong?” I yelled to the Santa.

  The man looked up at me. I nearly tumbled over when a piercing pain struck me in the gut for the third time.

  Images of a pig floated into my head, making me dizzy. I realized I had had a nightmare about a pig, not a dream. I gulped. Closing my eyes, I inhaled and took a deep cleansing breath to regain my senses. If I didn’t get to my shop and figure out this nightmare quickly, I knew Whispering Falls wouldn’t have a very Merry Christmas.

  “I’m sorry.” I hurried back to the Santa and picked up Mr. Prince Charming. The cape opened in the front and the chilly air whipped up and around me. I cradled my cat closer. “Who are you?” I decided to ask him instead of going to see Oscar.

  “I’m the red kettle Santa for the day,” he said sarcastically.

  “Yes. I can see that.” I smiled and secretly wished I had a potion to give him to make him nice. He wasn’t the jolliest of Santas. “Who hired you?”

  “The lady with long blonde hair.” There was only one woman on the Village Council he could be referring to and that was Isadora Solstice.

  “Izzy?” I asked, shortening her name.

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “That’s her.”

  Hmmm. My eyes squinted as fake smile lines drew up my face. That was unusual since the Village Council always used Gerald. We didn’t want word to get out about our little magical village and relied upon our own spiritualists as much as possible. Things sometimes changed at a moment’s notice, but then there would be a meeting called at the Gathering Rock. She should’ve called a meeting.

  I looked back at Gerald’s shop, The Gathering Grove Tea Shoppe, and swept my face back towards the Glorybee Pet Store, Petunia Shrubwood’s shop. They were married, and both shops were closed.

  “Thank you for filling in for Gerald.” I didn’t have time to assess the situation. I sent a little whisper in the air of good thoughts to Gerald and Petunia. Though the shops weren’t supposed to open for another ten minutes, I couldn’t help but worry something was wrong with baby Orin, their son.

  If that was the case, I was sure Izzy had no other choice but to ask one of the new mortals who lived in the new subdivision at the south end of town. We had opened a new development that included non-spiritual citizens. It was a farm-to-table community. It was really very interesting. There were fifty houses, all built around a working farm. It was a communal farm and we needed different herbs for the items for our spiritual needs. We had to do something when the local government questioned why we didn’t have subdivisions like other towns. The Village Council voted to open up a little plot of land and build only fifty houses. This way, we could use them as a cover for our magical little town.

  “Good morning,” Chandra Shango trilled from the front of her shop, A Cleansing Spirit Spa. She pushed the yellow turban up over her arched brows, and I noticed her fingernails had Christmas trees painted on them.

  “Happy day,” I said as I waved to Chandra from the front gate of A Charming Cure and pulled some dried leaves from the wisteria vine on the trellis. As I touched them, a few sprang back to life, making me smile. I tried to picture what it had looked like when my mom had owned the shop. It was something I had desperately tried to remember since learning this had been her shop, A Dose of Darla, at one time.

  Darla, as she preferred I call her, was my mother and she wasn’t a spiritualist. She just had a natural knack for homeopathic cures. My father was a spiritualist, which made me one.

  “Do you know what’s going on with Gerald?” I asked across the way to Chandra.

  “No? What?” She reached out and touched the Singing Nettles nestled in the flower boxes below her shop window.

  They hummed and stretched their leaves, bursting into song - Jingle Bells - and putting a big smile on my face.

  The Singing Nettles were Darla’s favorite flower even though she could never hear their song. She appreciated their sheer beauty like the rest of the mortal world. If only mortals could hear how lovely they sounded. It was like a true professional choir.

  “The Santa with the red cauldron isn’t Gerald.” I looked past her and noticed Glorybee was now open. Then I shifted my eyes across the street towards The Gathering Grove and saw it was open too. “Strange,” I whispered.

  “Where was the Santa?” Chandra asked.

  “He was right over there.” I pointed towards Magical Moments Flowers, but he was gone.

  “June,” Chandra drummed her fingertips together. “Are you okay this morning?”

  I laughed nervously and planted a smile on my face.

  “You know what?” I shook my head and put Mr. Prince Charming down on the ground. “I need coffee. That’s what’s wrong.” I tucked a strand of my short black bob behind my ear and put my hand in my pocket of the cape.

  I waved her off. I took the skeleton key from the depths of my pocket, leaving the pig charm behind, and unlocked the door to my shop.

  Meow, meow. Mr. Prince Charming darted ahead of me when the door opened. I ran my hand up along the wall and flipped on the lights.

  The front room was filled with all sorts of glass bottles of different shapes and sizes.

  Lamps were scattered throughout the shop on small tables. Each lampshade was very ornamental and no two were alike. Strands of beads dangled from some of the shades. They made the shop homey.

  The chalkboard on the wall listed the Special of the Day,

  Tiered display tables sprinkled the shop floor with all sorts of remedies on them. I knew the remedies inside were good. Luckily, I think there was enough inventory to open today. I’d been so busy decorating the display window for today’s opening, I’d forgotten to restock some items.

  The back wall was lined with every ingredient I used to create the special blend each customer needed. The bottles were organized in alphabetical order. Dried herbs hung from a clothesline around the room. There were burners, test tubes, melting pots, strainers, muslin cloths, cauldrons, and much more. In a back room behind a closed door, there was a desk, a mini-refrigerator, and a couch that was a good place to catch a quick nap.

  I took my cape off and hung it on the coat tree next to the counter. I moved behind the counter and flipped on my cauldron that was hidden by a partition.

  “What on earth happened back there?” I asked Mr. Prince Charming when I saw him pop his head out from underneath one of the tablecloths. The box of cookies from Wicked Good smelled so good.

  The warm apple cider immediately heated. I arranged the cookies on a festive Christmas plate. I couldn’t help myself and had a cookie on my way to the front door and flipped the sign to OPEN.

  “What is that charm all about?” I eyed him.

  Meow. He darted up to the counter and jumped on it.

  Mr. Prince Charming showed up on my front porch on my tenth birthday. He wor
e a little collar with a dangling turtle charm. It was missing one of its red eyes. I was so excited because I thought Darla had gotten me a cat. This would’ve been a good birthday present, especially since all of my birthday cakes were cakes from the local grocery store’s bakery that hadn’t been picked up by the customers who had ordered them. Darla didn’t bother crossing out the other person’s name on the cake or removing the CLEARANCE sticker from its box. She didn’t see anything wrong with getting me cakes that were clearly meant for someone else.

  So when Mr. Prince Charming showed up, I thought she’d gone all out for my birthday for one. Only I was wrong. He was a stray that hung around for years. I found out after Darla died that I was a spiritualist and he was sent to protect me since I didn’t live in a spiritual community.

  Long story short, whenever there was danger that I needed to know about, he’d steal a charm from Bella’s Baubles, Whispering Falls’ jewelry store, and bring it to me for protection. I had no idea how he did it. I never questioned the spiritual world I lived in. I simply trusted it.

  “Good morning.” I greeted a customer A she walked into the shop. I straightened out the tablecloths on my way back to the counter, using my hand to smooth out any unwanted creases.

  “I love all of these bottles.” The woman I had seen in the car earlier was standing in front of the far left wall looking at all the bath products. ”Each one is different.”

  It was Roxy Bloom. I felt an instant liking for her that warmed my soul.

  “They are so pretty.” Another young woman with red, shoulder-length hair had come in and started up a conversation with Roxy. “We don’t have anything like this in Locust Grove.”

  “Locust Grove?” I questioned her. “Are you from Locust Grove?”

  “I am.” She nodded, with a big smile on her face.

  “I am too.” I made my way over to her. I sucked in a deep breath and let her awareness seep into me. “Are you getting married?” I asked.

  I felt it in her soul that she wanted a long, happy marriage but had some doubts.