Mysterious Mintwood Murmurs Read online

For a moment not a single muscle in Mrs. Grate’s face moved. Then she slowly looked up from her plate. Once her head was level, her eyebrows rose.

  “Of course you are, darling. It’s about time, if I do say so myself,” she said.

  Greer blinked several times, whether in surprise or relief or something else I had no idea.

  “Congratulations,” said Mrs. Grate.

  “Thank you,” said Greer. She looked as if she was about to be sick.

  Chapter Six

  Mrs. Grate left breakfast first. She didn’t take long to eat egg whites. Once she was up and standing I thought the worst was over.

  Greer stood as well.

  “I hope you don’t mind my being the one to tell you,” said Greer.

  Mrs. Grate had plastered a sort of smile on her face. The only trouble was that it didn’t reach her eyes.

  “No, dear. Not at all. I’m just happy you didn’t elope. I thought that was a possibility. I suppose it still is. Some mothers have it way worse. At least Deacon has always wanted to stay in the area. I assume your mother is planning the wedding?” She was speaking quickly.

  Greer rocked back on her heels a little. “We haven’t exactly worked out who is planning what,” she said.

  “Your mother certainly has ideas, I suppose? Perhaps I will give her a call. Deacon as well. Give him my congratulations myself. You will have to come over for dinner once he’s back. That will be lovely,” she said.

  “Yes, of course,” said Greer.

  “Yes, I do think I’ll give your mother a call. Lovely breakfast. Congratulations again,” said Mrs. Grate.

  “Have a good day,” I managed to say.

  “You as well. I assume you’ll both be bridesmaids,” she said, turning briefly to Charlie and me. “Of course there are some Grates in the family, but it’s important to have friends of the bride as well. I’m sure your mother will agree,” said Mrs. Grate. “Until next time.”

  She had barely left the Daily Brew when Greer collapsed into a chair.

  Bridget immediately appeared with a chocolate chip cookie. “On the house,” she said, shaking her head.

  Greer barely managed to say thank you, but she did pull herself together enough to eat the cookie. Charlie and I sat down as well, despite the fact that Charlie had to get to work and I was on my way to see Jasper after we left the café. He had finished his cabin on Turtle Pond, and he wanted to show me what he’d done, so I’d be driving out to another of the lakes in Mintwood besides Peeper Leaf Pepper.

  Charlie rubbed Greer’s shoulder. “See, she was happy that you were the one to tell her,” said Charlie.

  “She was happy because if it had been Deacon she wouldn't have had to pretend she was pleased,” said Greer.

  “Don’t be silly. She has clearly known for years the you and her son were going to get married,” Charlie retorted.

  “She’s known for years and realized that she can’t buy her way out of it. I’m sure she’s tried, though, “said Greer bitterly.

  “Of course she hasn’t. She wants Deacon to be happy,” said Charlie.

  “I know she does. The only problem is that she doesn’t think he can be happy with someone like me,” said Greer.

  Someone independent and opinionated, who wore t-shirts instead of pant suits and dresses.

  “Water under the bridge. You two have been together for too long. You both knew that once the wedding came there would be . . . stress,” said Charlie.

  “Yeah, don’t worry so much about it,” I told my friend. “Just talk to Deacon. I’m sure everything will smooth itself out.”

  Greer nodded absently, but she didn’t look convinced.

  Just then the door to the Daily Brew opened and a familiar dark head walked in showing off Hansen Gregory’s dark blue eyes. He was cute and always well dressed, and I was always glad to see him.

  Charlie saw him and squeaked.

  He saw her and beamed.

  Greer gave me a look that said some things never change.

  “Are you suddenly realizing that you’re busy?” I asked Greer.

  “Very. I have to go home and get ready for work,” said Greer. “What about you?”

  “Going over to Jasper’s,” I said with a wicked grin.

  “Don’t you two dare. Don’t you want to see Hansen?” Charlie sputtered. He was ordering coffee, and he clearly intended to join her once he had it.

  “Honestly? Not as much as I want to see you squirm,” Greer confirmed.

  “I’d love to see him. Have him round to dinner,” I smiled.

  Charlie gave both of us a dirty look. Unlike in past months, when Charlie would have bolted with us, she was rooted to the spot.

  Hansen got his coffee and came over.

  “Hey! We were actually just leaving. Feel free to take this seat,” I said, standing up and reaching for my jacket.

  “Great. Thanks. There’s actually something I want to talk to you about when you have a minute, Lemmi. Doesn’t have to be now,” he said.

  “Sure. Sounds good. I have a lot going on at the moment, but I’m sure we’ll find a time soon,” I said.

  The look on Charlie’s face when she realized she was going to sit alone with Hansen and have coffee made it almost worth sticking around for. But I gave them their privacy. I could hear about it later.

  Or not.

  After I parted ways with my friends, I drove to the cabin Jasper had built on the lake. It was where he lived when he didn’t just crash on his sofa at the office, or stay at my place.

  The last time I’d been out there it hadn’t been entirely finished. As I approached this time, I could see that the work was all done, and the cabin was lovely. The lake was quiet and peaceful, and Jasper’s truck was already there. He had said that he was going to do some work from home that day, so I wasn’t surprised.

  “Hey,” he said, coming outside to greet me.

  Jasper had dark hair and mint green eyes. When I went around town with him I noticed that women always gave him a second look. I always gave them a first bristle.

  We spent the next hour touring the property. I wanted him to explain everything that he had done around the place. He had built a porch on the back side that faced the lake and added a dock that jutted out into the water. He was especially proud of that.

  “I don’t know where you find the time,” I told him as we sat on the back deck drinking iced tea. The weather was cold enough that we wore our jackets, but the rain had stopped.

  “It’s relaxing. Work can be stressful, but this isn’t,” he said.

  I found myself looking around. There were cabins on either side of his, but they were far away.

  I wondered if they were occupied by Witch Hunters.

  My face shadowed and he noticed. Leaning forward he said, “Any updates on the coven or Ellie?”

  I shook my head, biting my bottom lip.

  “Nothing from either. I’m going to get in touch with Scarlett and Josephine soon. Maybe they can fill me in on what’s going on,” I mused.

  “That would be good,” Jasper agreed. “I don’t like that the dark ghosts are missing. They could be massing anywhere.”

  “They can’t be far away,” I said. “I’m wondering if I shouldn’t ask Paws and some other ghosts to form on a search party and go looking for them.”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Jasper. “They might find something, and they’d probably be able to get away before anything serious happened.”

  Then we changed to happier topics. I told him all about Greer’s wedding struggles; he listened quietly, a habit of his that I always appreciated. He knew how much Greer and Deacon wanted to get married. The problems with their mothers were more noise than anything else.

  “I hope they figure it out. I know Deacon’s pumped about the wedding,” he said.

  I flopped into a chair in the kitchen as he put sandwiches together for lunch.

  “Oh, really? Do tell,” I said.

  He looked at me and grinne
d. “Tell you what?”

  “You know, guys talking about a wedding. What’s it like?” I asked.

  “Umm, a lot less emphasis on decorations and outfits. We’re mainly concerned with the drinks list, the food list, and if any pretty girls will be there,” he said.

  “Oh, I see,” I felt a blush creeping up my cheeks from the way he was looking at me.

  “I have a feeling that this wedding is going to have all of those things,” he said.

  I smiled.

  Just then there was a knock at the door. He frowned in that direction and slid my plate toward me.

  “Be right back,” he said, and strode away.

  I slid off my seat the second I heard him open the door. I wanted to see who was there.

  On my tiptoes, I peered through the window that looked out toward the front entrance.

  I didn’t see another vehicle, so whoever it was must have walked over.

  It turned out to be a man in his sixties, wearing all black. He was speaking with Jasper in hushed tones, and he kept looking at my car. I couldn’t see Jasper’s face or hear the words he was saying, but the cadence of his voice carried on the wind.

  Jasper wasn’t pleased.

  When he started to close the door, I rushed back to my seat at the kitchen table and quickly stuffed the sandwich into my mouth.

  When he returned his smile was gone. “You don’t have to pretend to be eating. I know you got up to see who it was,” he said.

  “Hffumm uuffmm,” I said.

  He just shook his head, a slight smile reappearing on his face. Relief flooded me. If he was smiling at all it couldn’t be that bad, even if the smile was because I looked ridiculous with rye bread coming out of my mouth.

  “Who was it?” I asked.

  “One of the neighbors,” he said as he prepared his own sandwich.

  “Is he a Witch Hunter?” I asked.

  Now that we were together and we were being honest about this stuff . . .

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “I thought you went to one of the meetings,” I said.

  “I did. I didn’t see anyone’s face. My grandfather told me how to get there. It wasn’t hard,” he said.

  “Did your grandfather go?” I asked.

  “No,” said Jasper. He was frowning down at his cheese. Given how much he loved cheese, the fact that he was making that expression at it meant that something must have really bothered him.

  “Should we talk about it?” I tried to sound gentle.

  He looked up at me and smiled. “Not right now. We’re having such a nice day.”

  My stomach twisted. I realized that I didn’t want to talk about it either. His experience must not have been a good one if he was so worried about telling me anything about it.

  We went back to enjoying our time together, but something kept nagging at me.

  If we didn’t discuss it now, then when?

  Chapter Seven

  After a quiet afternoon, I headed out to pick up Charlie. But first I had to stop in at the farmhouse to put some food together. We were planning to eat at her office and then head to the cemetery.

  This kind of busy day didn’t suit me, but sometimes that was just the way it was.

  I made some vegetables, chicken, and potatoes and packed them into a cooler. We had already eaten breakfast at the café. We couldn’t very well go crazy and eat out twice in one day. Besides, there were hardly any places to eat dinner out in Mintwood.

  Paws was on the porch when I left. “How was Honolulu?” I asked as I passed him sitting on his crate.

  “She is the shimmering sun even in darkness,” said Paws.

  “Glad she’s doing well,” I said.

  “Do you have any mysteries afoot?” he asked. “I would kind of like a mystery.”

  “We’re going to the Mintwood Cemetery tonight to talk to a woman who died a couple of years ago,” I said.

  “Ah. I would like to attend,” he said. “I would like a mystery. I am hot to trot, so to speak.”

  “I wanted to talk to you about that,” I said.

  “Surely. I am at your service. Until you want me to do something I don’t want to do. Like stop trotting,” he said.

  “I would never want that,” I said dryly.

  “So you think,” he grumbled.

  We headed for the car together. “I assume you’re going to see the pearl of the human world?”

  “Is that what you’re calling Charlie these days?” I asked.

  “Surely,” he said.

  “What work would you like me to undertake?” Paws asked. He sat in the front seat of the car. As he often did, he put his paws on the door and peer out the window at the world flying past.

  “I want you to find the dark ghosts. I don’t think we can move as fast as ghosts can. Or be as safe. We need to know where Ellie and her friends have gone,” I explained.

  For a few moments he didn’t answer.

  “Yes, I agree. That does sound necessary. I have been thinking about the same issue.”

  “What did you conclude?” I asked.

  “Tank and I will go. With Kingfisher,” he said.

  “Is he willing to help?” I asked.

  “For a price,” said Paws.

  “What price?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he murmured.

  “Did something happen?” I asked.

  “Honolulu was worried. She’s determined to show a brave face, but all of the ghosts know that Puddlewood dissolved,” he said.

  “How do they know that?” I asked.

  “Kingfisher wrote a flyer and distributed it to every ghost he could think of,” said Paws.

  “Great,” I muttered.

  “We will find them,” said Paws.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  Charlie let us into the office, which was quiet because most of her colleagues were gone for the day. Once we were safely in the small conference room, she closed the door and grinned at Paws. “Have you ever visited me at work before?”

  “No, this is the first time,” he said. “Nice place. Looks like you might have mice, though. I’ll have to look into that. Strictly to do you a favor.”

  “Those two things don’t really go together,” said Charlie.

  “They do in my world,” said the cat.

  Charlie sighed and shook her head. I took the food out of the cooler and we spread it out on the table.

  Charlie had brought one of the binders in which she had saved material to discuss.

  “Did you find out more about Haley?” I asked.

  She frowned. “Yeah, and it just keeps getting stranger. Seems some reports leave out entirely that she was in a car accident. I asked Lena if she remembered the incident, but she didn’t really. I think we might have to talk to the county medical examiner.”

  “Is there something wrong with his report?” I asked.

  “It’s thin,” said Charlie. “I don’t think anyone thought too much about the case. They just figured she swerved to avoid a deer, and died. The deer was long gone by the time she was found, and that was the end of it.”

  “But there’s more to the case, and tonight we’re going to talk to Haley,” said Paws.

  “Her sister said she’d gotten a couple of anonymous threats before she died. She wanted them looked into,” Charlie said.

  “Did Detective Cutter help?” I asked.

  “Funny thing about that. He was on an extended leave when she died. Tom wasn’t here yet, so we had a rent-a-sheriff from Connors, one town over,” said Charlie.

  “Who was he?”

  “A man by the name of Robertson. Younger than Detective Cutter but older than Tom,” she said.

  “Strange,” I mused. “All of this is very strange.”

  “You can say that again,” said Paws. “Why can’t you two just leave well enough alone? I thought you’d have a real mystery.”

  “This is a real mystery! There’s a reason I can see ghosts, and
it’s not for the pleasure of your scintillating conversation.”

  “I take offense to that,” said Paws.

  “We have to talk to Haley,” I insisted. “The threats might be far enough back that she remembers details about them. If she’s been thinking about it for two years, she might also remember who made them.”

  “I think we have to talk to her sister, too” said Charlie.

  “We can make that happen. I don’t think Greer would mind going back there. It was a nice wedding shop,” I said.

  “Great. We’ll go tomorrow,” said Charlie, shuffling papers.

  “How was the rest of your time at the Daily Brew?” I asked.

  Charlie let out a frustrated noise. For once she actually looked like she wanted to discuss Hansen Gregory.

  Paws, still sniffing around the room, knew exactly what – or whom – we were talking about. “You know, I don’t mind him as much as I thought I would,” said Paws

  “That’s because he knows enough to compliment you,” I said.

  Charlie shook her head. “I’ve just realized that I have trouble with commitment. If I give him the jewelry that would let him see Paws and the rest, we’ll be committed.”

  “He already knows about us. That kind of sounds like commitment all on its own,” I said.

  “Yeah, but not between us. He knows who you are and that’s fine. We know he’d never betray you. That’s different from us really dating and everything that goes along with that,” she said.

  “What has he said about it?” I asked.

  She looked at me with surprise. “Why would I discuss this with him?” she asked.

  I frowned at her. “You would discuss this with him because he’s the one you are nearly dating. That tends to involve communication.”

  She just shook her head. “I have never heard anything so silly.”

  “Discussing difficult topics with a significant other is part of a relationship. In fact, it might be the hallmark of a relationship if you can discuss difficult topics with him more easily than you can discuss them with anyone else.”

  “I’m not sure you know what you’re talking about. Paws, what do you think?” Charlie asked the cat.

  Paws had resumed his sniffing around the room, but he stopped long enough to answer her. “I hate to say this, but Lemmi is right. He’s a nice guy and he has never judged you. The idea that he wouldn’t give good advice is simply silly. To use your word. You need to talk about this with him. If you’re afraid of commitment, you need to address that too,” said Paws.