A Witch on Mintwood Mountain (Witch of Mintwood Book 4) Page 2

  I still had a lot of questions about my grandmother’s death, most of which I’d buried deep down, but having my aunt here was encouraging the questions to bubble to the surface again. Who was my grandmother’s strange benefactor? Was it the fancy car I had once seen trying to visit her grave? Had my grandmother died of natural causes? She had been in perfect health and she wasn’t that old, so there were some open questions, to say the least. Still, now didn’t feel like the right time. My aunt had come to help me with some specific issues, not to have all my doubts and questions loaded onto her shoulders.

  “Tell me about the mayor’s race,” she said, bringing me back to the present. “Mayor Clabberd has been in office for over thirty years now, hasn’t he? And he’s running unopposed again this time?”

  Charlie sighed. The mayor’s race was the current bane of Charlie’s existence. Well, that and Hansen Gregory, the reporter for the Caedmon Chronicle, but Hansen was a constant annoyance regardless of what else was going on in the world, whereas a mayoral election happened only every few years. My aunt smiled knowingly at Charlie’s frustration.

  “It’s unbelievable!” cried Charlie. “The mayor has been trying to convince citizens to run, just so he can put on a show of wanting to be mayor, as if anyone is confused about that. No one wants to oppose him, because they know they’ll lose. Even the upstarts who want the town run differently, like the Mintwoodians For a Higher Speed Limit, are refusing to run.”

  “You know it’s serious when that happens,” Greer muttered.

  My aunt laughed. “Is that really a town group now?”

  “They take themselves very seriously. They say that Mintwood is a backwater and we have to revitalize the town, and it starts with the speed limit.”

  “And making it legal for tourists to drive through town even faster is the way to go?”

  “I think the name is a work in progress,” Greer chimed in.

  “I wonder if they’ll convince anyone to raise the speed limit,” my aunt mused.

  “I don’t know, but there’s a town hall meeting in a couple of days and we might find out then,” said Charlie hopefully. “That or they could announce he’s the de facto winner and we can stop worrying about it.”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” my aunt asked.

  “I don’t like fun. Cold hard facts is the way to go,” Charlie grumbled. “That’s what’s printable.”

  “Maybe one of the Wolfs could run,” I threw in. Charlie looked horrified, while Greer dropped her fork. My aunt’s gaze turned to steel.

  “Don’t start that again,” Aunt Harriet warned.

  “Why not?” I huffed. “They’re witch hunters, but you won’t tell me anything about them! I’m a witch, in case you forgot, and I have a right to know if I’m being hunted.”

  “You’re just being dramatic. It’s enough for you to you know that the Wolfs are bad news and you should stay away from them,” she said.

  “It’s not enough for me,” I said stubbornly. “I thought you were here to help me. I have a postcard that says so.”

  “I’m here to help you with the dark witches,” my aunt explained. “I’m not here to teach, and I’m not here to explain Oreo Wolf.”

  “Who?”

  “Oreo, that’s what Evenlyn used to call Jasper’s grandfather, if I’m not mistaken,” said my aunt.

  “Why would you be mistaken about a name like that?” I asked.

  “I love Oreo cookies,” Greer sighed happily.

  I glanced at the wall clock just then and realized that time had passed all too quickly. “I have to go,” I said. “Evening pet sitting awaits.” We’d have to finish this argument later.

  “Be careful,” my aunt admonished me.

  “I will. Paws is going to come,” I said.

  “All the more reason to watch your back,” she grumbled.

  Evidently, Harriet was just another on the long list of people Paws didn’t get along with. So, there was everyone he argued with on one list and Charlie on the other.

  Paws was waiting for me on the hood of the Beetle as I came outside.

  I had been so busy talking at dinner that I hadn’t noticed it starting to rain. It was just warm enough that the rain wasn’t snow, but if it continued through the night it would probably turn to the fluffy stuff as the temperature dropped.

  I still had Ms. Ivy’s cats to look after. In case you were wondering, no, a week and a life-saving rescue (okay, I let her into the house but it was still a big deal) had not been enough to make Neely warm to me. I took heart from the notion that Neely wouldn’t be warmed by a volcano, so what chance did I stand?

  My other pet sitting job at the moment was at the Hodges’, where I was looking after a pig named Truffle. Pigs are very smart, of course, and luckily for me Truffle realized that I was new at this and needed to be humored. In other words, I had the distinct impression that she was taking it easy on me. I finished my duties with Truffle, which involved Paws staying steadfastly in the car because he wasn’t a fan of mud, then I was on my way to Ms. Ivy’s.

  “I can’t believe you’re still taking care of the Ivy cats with the Dresden house so close by,” scoffed Paws.

  Not long ago, two witches, Betty and Possy, had been staying at the Dresden house, up the road from the Ivy place. They had disappeared after a confrontation we’d had at my farmhouse with a dark witch named Ellie. Greer, Charlie, and I had surmised that Betty and Possy were in cahoots with Ellie to get my grandmother’s real wand, and though they had failed the first time, I felt certain they’d try again.

  “They’re gone,” I said. “I don’t see what the danger is. Someone has to take care of the cats.”

  “We do deserve the best,” said Paws.

  “Are you saying I’m the best pet sitter?” I said.

  “I’m sure that’s not what I’m saying,” said Paws.

  “It might be what you’re saying,” I said.

  “You might have wax in your ears,” he said.

  “Don’t worry, I can take a compliment,” I told him.

  “Clearly,” he said.

  “At least the dark witches have left town,” I murmured.

  “They haven’t gone far,” he said. “They’re too busy poaching your ghosts.”

  “Poor Mr. Smith,” I said. He had been murdered years ago and his body only just discovered. Ellie the dark witch had gotten to his ghost before I had and turned him dark. As Paws told it, that was a very bad thing to happen to a ghost.

  We were on our way to the Ivy place, at a spot not far from the lake, when I heard sirens. The next instant I saw blue lights in my rearview mirror.

  “They’ve finally come for you,” said Paws dramatically. “Whatever will I do without you!”

  I slowed the Beetle and pulled over, but the police car went whizzing past. Paws followed the car with his eyes.

  “Okay, they missed you. That’s strange,” he said.

  “I don’t think it was me they were after,” I told him.

  “Surprising,” he muttered. “Confusing.”

  I got back on the road and kept driving. We had barely gone a mile when we heard more sirens.

  “Oh, good. They’re coming back for you. Lemmi, it’s been swell,” Paws told me. “I’d cry, but my tear ducts don’t work anymore.”

  “You’re a cat,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “You say that as if it explains something,” said Paws.

  “It explains everything,” I clarified.

  I pulled over again as another police cruiser went flying past. I had just enough time to note that this time it was the state police.

  Paws hopped up on the dashboard as we saw taillights. “SHE’S RIGHT HERE! I’M IN THE CAR WITH HER! WHY ARE YOU DRIVING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!”

  “Where do you think they’re going?” I asked as I got back on the road.

  “The wrong place,” Paws offered.

  “You’re so charming, it’s a real wonder you don’t have more friends,” I
muttered.

  The Ivy place was quiet, and the cats treated me just the way they always did. Nelly and Noel were happy to see me, Neely couldn’t have cared less. I replenished their food and water, checked around the house to make sure all was well, and headed for home.

  After such a long day, I was glad to be back at the farmhouse with my night winding down. Except for Paws’ dramatics, nothing much out of the ordinary had happened.

  I had just gone into the kitchen to help with dinner clean-up when some hunch told me to turn around and look at the window. When I did, lo and behold there were two ghosts I had never seen before looking in on me. They were a young couple, neither older than twenty-five, both well put together, except for the dead part.

  Happening to turn around at the same moment, Charlie too saw the strangers, and screamed.

  The ghosts, apparently just as startled as Charlie, began to turn away from the house. As I dashed outside to catch them before they disappeared, I heard Charlie’s phone ring, but I didn’t have time to stick around and see who it was.

  Catching up with the ghosts a little way from the house I said, “Hello, I’m Lemmi.”

  “Are you the Witch of Mintwood?” asked the woman.

  When I nodded, she looked relieved. “A ghost dog told us you were the person to speak to. That was only after we spoke to a bear, a wild cat, and several foxes and raccoons about the matter.”

  That was quite the list.

  “About what matter?” I asked.

  The man grimaced.

  “About our bodies,” the woman supplied.

  Just then Charlie came out of the house, pale and still holding her phone. “That was my editor, Lena,” she said, glancing at the ghosts. “She wants me to get to Farmer Franklin’s as soon as possible.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “They think it’s haunted,” said Charlie.

  Chapter Three

  Charlie looked at the two ghosts strangely.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Charlie made a motion as if to say she thought she should leave, but she couldn’t help herself; as always, her curiosity got the better of her.

  “You’re the missing hikers, aren’t you,” she said. It was more a statement than a question.

  The woman nodded. “Yes. Rescuers were crawling all over Mintwood Mountain, but they didn’t find us. I died in my favorite flannel and new boots. We were yelling and waving our arms and everything, but we couldn’t get their attention.”

  I remembered the story. Last summer, around the time when my grandmother died, three hikers had gone missing on Mintwood Mountain. Rescuers had searched and searched, but they had never found the bodies.

  “We had only meant to go on a day hike, but then Chloe . . .” The man made another unhappy face.

  “Yeah, why are there only two of you?” Charlie asked.

  The woman and man exchanged startled looks.

  “You mean there was a third missing hiker?” gasped the woman.

  “Yeah, of course there was. You all drove up there in the same car,” said Charlie, “but no one ever came back out of the woods, nor were any bodies found, even after an expansive search.”

  “Yes, but . . .” The woman shook her head. “I just remember falling, then Kevin was falling with me. I yelled up to Chloe to go get help, but she didn’t answer.”

  “You must be Kevin and Kay then,” Charlie mused.

  “You say you slipped into a ravine?” I said.

  “I think so,” said the ghost, frowning. “It was all very strange. It was Chloe who insisted that we go hiking that day. Kevin and I didn’t really want to go, but she begged and pleaded and all of that, so we finally agreed. Then it rained, and again we thought maybe we shouldn’t go, but Chloe wouldn’t let go of the idea, so in the end we went. We were hiking off the beaten path on a trail that Chloe just had to try . . .”

  I was noticing a theme here.

  “What’s going on?” Greer came out of the house looking sleepy, followed closely by Aunt Harriet.

  “It’s a downright party,” muttered Kevin, seeming overwhelmed. “Look, we don’t know what happened. We thought Chloe left us to go get help, but then she never came back. All this time we assumed she made it out and just kept on with her life. I had no idea she was missing too. We wanted to come to you a long time ago, but when we heard that the Witch of Mintwood had died, we got discouraged.

  “We really just want our bodies found. We want someone to tell our mothers, so they know we’re all right.” She paused, as if realizing how odd that sounded coming from a ghost, then said, “Well, you know what I mean. And I guess now I have to add that I want Chloe found too.”

  “I’m the new Witch of Mintwood,” I explained. “I can help you, that’s part of my job.”

  “I thought she left us there for dead,” Kay muttered again.

  The idea that they had all been friends, but that there was even a suspicion that Chloe would have left them for dead, made me question the friendship. But right now wasn’t the time to go into it.

  I sighed. “All right, yes, of course. Show me to your bodies and I’ll see what I can do.”

  If I were being honest, I’d have had to admit that being led up onto a mountain to find some bodies in the dark was the last thing I wanted to do. And that was without even mentioning that I would have to think of a way to explain my find to Detective Cutter, who was already suspicious of my tendency to be on hand when evidence of a murder was discovered.

  The good news here was that this time there had been no murder, unless the reason Chloe was still missing was that she had been murdered.

  “Why can’t these ghosts find their way to my house sooner,” I muttered. “Do I need a sign and a map?”

  I expected at least my aunt, if no one else, to protest the idea of going out in the middle of the night, but she was all for it.

  “And I thought there were no adventures left in Mintwood,” she said with relish. “I’m going to put on my sparkle eyeshadow.”

  “I have to get to Farmer Franklin’s and figure out what’s going on there,” said Charlie, who seemed to be downright worried that real ghosts were causing a disturbance. “I’ll meet you at the Mountain as soon as I can and report on what I find.”

  “You can’t come up there by yourself. We’re going to have ghosts leading us,” Greer warned her.

  “I’ll be really fast at the Franklins’, and get to the trailhead in time to go up with you all. I can’t miss the discovery of the bodies! Their going missing was a really big story last summer, three hikers just vanishing into thin air!” said Charlie, dashing out the door without waiting for a response.

  “Now only one hiker has vanished,” I said.

  “Do we think she died as well?” Greer asked.

  I shrugged. “At this point I have no idea what happened. Let’s get there and see where Kay and Kevin’s bodies are, and we’ll go from there.”

  “It’s odd that she just left them at the bottom of a cliff, isn’t it?”

  “Not if she went for help,” I said.

  “Which she apparently didn’t,” said Greer.

  “Maybe she never made it off the mountain, in which case she couldn’t even help herself,” I said. “She never turned up alive, after all.”

  We ran upstairs to get dressed for hiking, then met Aunt Harriet in the yard. My aunt had no trouble seeing ghosts, and she was chatting away with the local crew like they were old friends. They were still amazed that there were suddenly so many people who could see them.

  Paws was sitting on the porch angrily swishing his tail.

  “Still mad about all those police cars heading to the Franklins’ to deal with the ghost, as opposed to arresting me?” I teased.

  “Why would anyone arrest Lemmi?” Greer asked.

  “Just look at her. That hair alone deserves five years,” said Paws.

  “I like my hair just fine, thank you,” I said.

  That was a downright
lie. I hated the frizzy pile on top of my head ninety percent of the time. But I certainly wasn’t going to say so to Paws.

  “We’re going to Mintwood Mountain now,” I told the cat. “Are you coming?”

  Paws considered this for longer than usual. “Okay, I’ll come, but I’m not scouting anywhere out in the wilderness. I’ll be staying close.”

  I frowned. Usually when Paws and I went on assignment, the first thing he did was run away and explore. He was a cat, after all.

  “Why?” I asked, sensing that something was up.

  “No reason,” he said evasively.

  “Sure, I believe you,” I said. Not even a little bit.

  “Shall we?” said Paws. Hopping off his crate, he trotted to the Beetle and tried to look brave.

  “I can’t believe Mom’s old car still works,” said Aunt Harriet, climbing into the front seat.

  “We’re just as surprised as you are,” said Greer.

  “Were you regular hikers?” I asked the two ghosts, who had climbed into in the back seat with Greer. It seemed like a good idea to ask them questions and keep them talking while we drove to find their bodies.

  “No, we had only been hiking a couple of times in our lives before that day. The truth is, I hate the outdoors,” said Kay. She looked like the type that would. Very well put together in an “I fell down a cliff” sort of way.

  “This was all Chloe’s idea. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but then I ended up dead, and of course now I think differently. I can’t believe she just left us there,” said Kay again. I had a feeling that she’d been saying that an awful lot since she had died last summer

  Mintwood Mountain wasn’t far from my farmhouse, because nothing in Mintwood was all that far from my farmhouse. We were there in a jiffy.

  Unsurprisingly, we were the only car in the parking lot.

  “It’s nearly midnight. I was worried there’d be teenagers,” sighed Aunt Harriet.

  “How did you know teenagers come here?” Greer asked.

  “I was one once, you know,” Aunt Harriet said.

  “Right, sorry,” Greer muttered.