A Charming Blend Read online

  “I warned you. Didn’t you listen to the paper this morning?” Faith Mortimer asked about her editorial comments in the Whispering Fall Newspaper this morning as she wrapped one arm around her waist and gnawed on a fingernail on her other hand. Her long, blonde hair was pulled up into a high ponytail. She had a black ear wrap to keep her warm, though she really wore it as an accessory. “What use is my spiritual gift if you don’t listen?” Her onyx eyes glared at me.

  “At least she’s occupied.” Gerald parted the display window curtain and peeked across the street to the Whispering Falls police station where Oscar had taken Roxy Bloom in for questioning. “Now, what are we going to do about my Santa appearance?”

  Gerald was scheduled to sit in the sleigh where Michael was murdered. Faith was going to take the photos of the children sitting on his lap after the tree lighting, but that was on hold at the moment.

  “Speaking of Santa,” I said and turned towards Izzy. “Who was the guy you hired to play Santa this morning?”

  “What?” Izzy was a crystal ball reader and her Mystic Lights shop was a cover for her spiritual gift. She lifted her hand, the crystal eye in her snake ring sparkling, and she brushed her long, blonde wavy hair around one shoulder. Her hazel eyes looked confused. “What guy?”

  “There was a guy this morning in front of Magical Moments who was dressed as Santa, ringing a bell for the red cauldron.” I blinked a few times to regain my memory. “In fact, he told me that you hired him.”

  “I did no such thing.” She drew her hand and laid it up against her black cloak on top of her heart. “The only person who is allowed to play Santa is Gerald. It was his idea and he has to do it. Gerald?”

  “Don’t look at me. This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Gerald pulled the Santa beard from his face and curled the edges of his mustache. “Petunia and I have worked hard this year to make it very memorable for little Orin.”

  “That’s right, we have.” Petunia bounced lightly on her toes. She reached around and patted the baby carrier she had strapped to her back with Orin sound asleep. “He might be a toddler, but he loves when his daddy dresses up as the jolly old guy.”

  “That’s odd.” I glanced back over at Faith. “Do you recall anything about a Santa?”

  Faith’s spiritual gift of a Clauraudiance allowed her to hear inaudible things from the spirit world.

  “You know, I get so much static in the air with all this snow that sometimes it’s fuzzy.” The lines between her eyes drew together with worry. “Though I did hear something about a fiancé and some sort of boys’ night out.”

  Mr. Prince Charming sat up from his pillow on the chair behind the counter and batted the air.

  Mewl, mewl. He batted the air towards me. My pocket warmed.

  “Fiancé.” I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out the pig charm. “Camille,” I gasped and looked up between my friends. “I had a young woman in here today that wanted some lotion. When I went to make her lotion special,” I put air quotes on special, so they’d know I meant potion, “there was a strong sense she was going to have her heart broken. It was at the same time Roxy Bloom was in my shop. I was so focused on Roxy that I didn’t pay much attention to Camille.”

  Madame Torres lit up behind the counter, drawing a shadow over the shop.

  “Madame Torres?” Izzy questioned.

  “Yes.” I hurried behind the counter, patting Mr. Prince Charming before I disappeared to see what Madame Torres had to say.

  When I lifted my hands over her, the edges of my cloak swept back to my elbow, giving me the freedom to sweep my hands over the globe, bringing Madame Torres to life.

  Just like a movie, Madame Torres replayed the scene of Michael and Camille from inside of the shop. Then she showed Camille talking to Roxy at the tree lighting. She wasn’t with Michael.

  My mind was such a jumble from the night’s events, I’d completely forgotten he’d come into the shop.

  “Michael was here. This afternoon. He came in to get Camille. He said that they had to go home, and she was devastated. He’d promised her a day in Whispering Falls along with the tree lighting. Then,” I took a deep breath before I continued, “Madame Torres showed me Camille and Roxy talking at the tree lighting. Camille looked upset.”

  “We find Camille, we find our killer and this will all be over.” Petunia lifted her hand to her hair and pulled out a leaf, leaving a small opening in her messy up do for a turtle dove to fly out.

  On cue, Gerald, who was still peeking out of the curtain, grabbed the handle of the door, swinging it open to let the bird fly out into the cold night.

  “First, I need to go to the Treesort to fill the pillows with Mr. Sandman and to make sure Roxy is using the lotion I made for her.” My lashes swept up. “I gave her a dose of extra love so she won’t be snooping around.”

  “I think you need to slip her some memory loss herbs, so she will forget about the body,” Faith’s voice held some uneasiness. “The wind whispered how she has been involved in a few murder cases in her hometown of Honey Springs. She has a tendency to want to try to help solve the case when a body is found.” Faith shuddered, “I’m afraid the wind is telling me she’s already got some thoughts in her head as she’s talking to Oscar.”

  “Then,” Izzy clasped her hands in front of her and she stared directly at me. “You know what you need to do.”

  “I’m calling an emergency smudge meeting at the Gathering Rock.” Petunia’s chin lifted. Her chest heaved up and down. “There needs to be a cleansing. I’ll get in touch with Eloise.”

  “I’m already here.” Eloise stepped out of the darkness, making herself known. “This is beyond us.”

  Oscar’s aunt was an incense spiritualist. Early in the morning, she’d light special incense and walk around Whispering Falls as the smoke gave way to a cleansing day.

  “The smoke had puffs of skulls in them this morning. I gave an extra dose of protection to our citizens and spiritualists, which makes me think the killer is not among us in our community.” Her words made goosebumps crawl along my body.

  “This is even worse,” Gerald’s voice was shaky. “It has to be a visitor.”

  “Which makes it even more important for me to get to the Treesort.” I grabbed one of the Mr. Sandman mojo bags from the shelf behind the counter. “I’ll get the rooms cleansed and see what I can find out there before I meet all of you at midnight for the meeting.”

  “I’ll get the word out,” Faith said, referring to a special edition of the Whispering Falls Newspaper, on her way out the door.

  “We will get the Gathering Rock ready.” Petunia grabbed Gerald’s hand on their way out. Baby Orin was still fast asleep.

  “I’m going to look into my crystal balls to see exactly who that Santa was.” Izzy swept the edges of her cloak around her shoulder before she disappeared into the cold and dark winter night.

  “June,” Eloise put her hand on me, her voice soft. Her emerald eyes popped against her pale skin and short red hair. She’d gone into a trance and I knew she was speaking from the spiritual realm and she didn’t know what she was saying. “Please, be careful. There’s evil lurking and it’s a force beyond our village.” She pulled out a smudge stick infused with mustard seed. “You need to use this during the smudge ceremony. It’ll help ward off any other outside spirits.”

  There was a spark between our fingers when our hands exchanged the smudging stick. A memory recoiled from when I was a little girl and Darla. Darla and Eloise were best friends. There was no doubt in my mind they’d bonded because both of them were outsiders to Whispering Falls. Eloise only wanted to be near her brother and sister-in-law, Oscar’s parents, as well as Oscar. But she was a Fairywick, which meant she was part fairy and part witch, an unfavorable combination.

  The combination made her a Dark-Sider in the Light-Sider village of Whispering Falls. That’s why she lived deep in the woods on the outskirts of the town. Darla was similar. My father, Otto Heal, a wizard, had
done the unthinkable and married a mortal. She gave birth to me and they allowed my father to stay in the town and let my mother open her little cure shop, A Dose of Darla, where the current A Charming Cure was now located. Darla relied on Eloise to give her the special herbs she needed for her homeopathic lotions. Darla didn’t have real potions, only the natural cures the herbs provided.

  Still, many of my childhood memories were of Eloise and her giving me lessons on herbs and their special powers. At a very young age, she knew my father’s spiritual gift had overridden my mother’s mortal side and that I was a Good-Sider.

  She knew Darla would eventually leave Whispering Falls, so Eloise equipped me with as much as she could when I was a child. When she gave me incense in smudge sticks like she did today, those fond memories flooded over me.

  “Thank you.” I gave Eloise a quick hug before I turned to grab the tools I needed for my smudging ceremony.

  With a snap of her hand, Eloise was gone.

  “Come on, Mr. Prince Charming.” I grabbed my bag, tossing in all the ingredients I was going to need before flinging it across my body. “We’ve got to go to Roxy’s room before she and Patrick get back.”

  Amethyst didn’t let the customers pick the room they wanted. Her gift of Onerirocriticy; dream interpretation, helped her. She told me once that she dreamed about each of her clients and knew exactly what they needed from her before they even got there.

  “I asked you about the Santa when Roxy and I were cooking.” Amethyst reminded me while I was getting the Sandman potion ready. “I had a dream.”

  “A dream about the Santa and Roxy?” I jerked around, knocking the bed into a deep rocking motion.

  The honeymoon bed hung from thick grapevines. The honeymoon suite was amazing. It was located in the tallest tree in Whispering Falls. From the bottom, it appeared to be a ton of stairs to get up there. Thanks to magic, you were at the top in five steps. It amazed the guests, but they took it for what it was worth and didn’t question. The magical feel of the community overtook their sense of logic and let the love flow.

  “No. Nothing about her.” Her body stiffened.

  “What?” I asked, shooing Mr. Prince Charming off the bed. “Did you remember something?”

  “Patrick and Roxy are on their way back and she’s telling him they are going to figure out what happened to her friend Camille’s fiancé,” a soft gasp escaped her. “Hurry.”

  “I have to be calm,” I let her know she didn’t make my nerves even more jumpy. “Steady the ropes.”

  She grabbed them and held the bed still while I climbed up and sat down in the middle with my legs crossed. I held the piece of smoky quartz, focusing all my thoughts on the grounding energy of the stone, letting go of all troubling thoughts Roxy laid upon me.

  “The moon is up, I hold its piece, the silver dust will guard my peace,” I chanted with my eyes closed. I held the stone in my right hand and flicked my wrist in slow clockwise circles, repeating the chant two more times, “ The moon is up, I hold its piece, the silver dust will guard my peace. The moon is up, I hold its piece, the silver dust will guard my peace.”

  “Hurry,” Amethyst’s voice broke my trance. Her back was to the door.

  “Fine.” I crawled out of the bed just in time to sprinkle a little Sandman dust across the pillows, smooth out the comforter, and throw all the stuff back in my bag.

  “What’s going on here?” Patrick Cane stood at the threshold of the door cradling Roxy in his arms. He put Roxy back down on her feet. Both of them stared at us.

  Their two dogs hurried over to Mr. Prince Charming before he darted out the door and Patrick stopped them from following him.

  “Turndown service.” Amethyst twirled back around with a tray filled with cookies and hot tea. “There’s so many guests. June is so gracious to come help me with the bedtime service for the guests.”

  “Yes, I hope you enjoyed your evening.” I ran my hand down my bag and swept across the floor towards the door.

  “Are you joking?” Roxy shook her head. “I’m so sad over the death of Michael that I just can’t even. . .”

  Patrick reached back over and dragged his wife to him.

  “We just had someone die in our town and I think it’s bringing all of it back up for her. We were hoping to get away from death on our honeymoon, but it appears that it’s just followed us.” He stroked his wife’s curly hair as she nestled closer to him. It looked like the lotion I’d made for her earlier was doing the trick.

  Now if she’d only lay her head down on her pillow so we could get on with our smudge ceremony without worrying about her.

  Amethyst and I bid them a quick goodnight before we made our exit. The moon hung high in the sky. The teenagers fluttered around.

  “I told you to go play somewhere else for a few days. Go to the clearing on the outskirts of town near Locust Grove,” Amethyst told the lightning bugs. The darted around her before they flew off. “Teens, they never listen.”

  Teenagers in the spiritual world came back in the form of lightning bugs. True to the insect, teens stayed up all night and slept all day. It was a perfect form for their spirits to come back as.

  “Roxy noticed them right off.” Amethyst’s eyes slid up the trunk of the tree just as the inside lights of the honeymoon suite turned off.

  “Let’s just hope Roxy is asleep.” I sucked in a deep breath and turned to follow Mr. Prince Charming out of the forest and up the hill behind the shops where the Gathering Rock was located. “I’m going to snow them in for good measure.”

  I took a deep inhale, filling my lungs with the cool air. I exhaled through my mouth, giving the air more of a bite so the temperature would fall, sending heavy snowflakes down from the darkened sky,

  Chapter Five

  Roxy Bloom

  “Why are you turning the lights out?” Patrick asked and reached over to flip them back on.

  “Because they are watching us and I don’t want the lights on.” I glanced out the window and down to the ground where I could see June and Amethyst staring up at me.

  “Come on over and have a cookie.” Patrick popped a cookie in his mouth and held a steaming cup of tea up to his lips. “This is really good.”

  “I bet it is.” I watched June, Amethyst, and Mr. Prince Charming walk back towards to the woods until I couldn’t see them anymore. I blinked a few times when I swear I thought I’d seen more lightning bugs.

  I shook my head and decided it must’ve just been my imagination because they were suddenly gone.

  “I still think Officer Park was just asking me silly questions to keep me there.” I glanced up at the full moon that hung over the tree suite. “It’s snowing again. Did you hear me?”

  When he didn’t answer, I turned around. Patrick was face down in his pillow, lightly snoring. Sassy was on my pillow, sound asleep.

  “Hmmmmm,” I ho-hummed, looking down at Pepper. He was so cute sitting next to my feet and staring up at me with his round black eyes. His long Schnauzer eyelashes fluttered at me. “Would you like to go for a walk?”

  He yipped.

  “Shhhh, we can’t wake them.” I grabbed Pepper’s red sweater with the snowflake pattern and put it on him. “Daddy wouldn’t be happy if he knew we were going out. Especially since we’re going to check out the crime scene.”

  Pepper danced around me, his nails clicking on the hardwood floor. I continued to look at Patrick while I got my snow gear on, but he and Sassy didn’t move. I’d never seen him sleep so soundly.

  “Let me text Camille really fast.” I grabbed my phone and found my new friend’s phone number. “How are you doing?” I texted. “I’m so sorry about what happened. I’d love to talk to you. Please let me know how I can help.” I hit the green send button and slipped the phone in the pocket of my coat. “Let’s go.”

  Pepper was such a good dog. He didn’t ever need a leash. It wasn’t something I’d known about him when I got him from the Pet Palace, Honey Springs’ version
of the SPCA. It was locally owned and operated by volunteers. Each month, I featured one of the animals from Pet Palace at The Bean Hive. It was a great way to get the animals out in the community to get adopted.

  “It’s really coming down.” I batted at the heavy snow after we’d made our way down the steps of the honeymoon tree suite.

  Pepper bounced in and out of the heaps of snow, snapping at the falling flakes. I followed him, thinking he knew where he was going.

  My phone buzzed a call in my pocket.

  “Camille,” I answered right away. “How are you?”

  “I’m so confused about why someone would kill Michael.” She sobbed from the other end of the phone.

  As a former lawyer, I knew this was when I needed to be silent. She needed to be heard and now was the time for me to listen. It was one of the things I missed about being a lawyer, being a good listener. It was probably why I loved owning The Bean Hive. Everyone loved to chat over coffee. Whispering Falls didn’t have anything over the magical powers of the coffee bean.

  It was over a big cup of coffee where people opened up and talked freely about things in their lives, good and bad.

  “You want to know the last thing I said to him?” She asked, sniffling on the other end.

  “If you’d like to tell me,” I offered and pushed away the dangling branches from one of the trees on the trail out to the shops where I wanted to see the crime scene again.

  “I told him it was going to have to be over his dead body before I left Whispering Falls before the tree lighting.” Her words pierced my soul.

  “Did you tell anyone else this?” I asked, knowing it would make her a suspect on Officer Park’s list.

  “I didn’t have to. June Heal, the owner of that lotion store, she told Officer Park I said that.” Her voice trailed off.

  “Did you say it in front of her?” I asked.

  “He stormed past you into the shop and told me he’d make me a romantic night at home. Something about wanting to get ahead of the snowstorm. That’s when I told him I wasn’t leaving. He stormed out and I didn’t see him again until. . .” Camille started to cry even harder. “Roxy, I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I feel comfortable with you.”