Witch Way to Mintwood (Witch of Mintwood Book 1) Read online

The lake was on the rich side of town. Since I was already in that neighborhood to visit Gracie, it didn’t take me long to get to the barn. People were already lining up to surround it, protesting the sale and development of a landmark.

  I parked my car and got out. The day was warming, and it was nice to see the old barn standing tall in the sunlight. I smiled and nodded to a couple of the protesters. They were used to seeing me around, but they brightened up considerably when I reached into the back of my car, grabbed the sign I’d thrown together saying “Save Our Historic Landmark,” and joined in.

  We were protesting today because this afternoon was the planned official announcement of the sale of the land from Deacon to Jasper.

  “Old football buddies always stick together,” said Mrs. Snicks disapprovingly. Mrs. Snicks was the librarian, and when she was off duty she did what all good hippies did: she protested any cause she could. I nodded to tell her she was darn right, and she chuckled, winked at me, and lifted her sign higher.

  The ghosts are generally hard to see during the day, and today was no different. When I looked at the barn windows, all I saw was empty black space. No doubt Morris and Morton didn’t want to be here for this stupid rally either.

  Not all the townsfolk present were protesting. Some were peacefully milling around on the grass, chatting and laughing, waiting to see what Jasper would say about the planned development.

  If, that is, it was even going to be Jasper speaking at the podium; no one really knew.

  I hadn’t seen him since high school. Hopefully he’d have gone bald and gotten fat, and on that theory I had a very satisfying image developing in my mind.

  The ten or so of us protesting started walking in a circle in front of the podium, which had already been set up in the open area between the barn and the road. Behind the podium was a big image of the planned new apartment complex. Okay, I could admit it; an apartment on the water sure would be nice. Except, not this water, and not this barn. I ordered myself to stop thinking positively about the development immediately. That’s just what Jasper and his cohorts of barn doom wanted me to think! But no, I wouldn’t be sucked in. This development would be horrible for the environment, and the fact that it would provide a much needed boost to the local economy was irrelevant.

  As luck would have it, I had arrived just before the start of the small press conference, so I wasn’t surprised to see Charlie’s Subaru pull up and her blond head pop out. She got out in a hurry and rushed past me with a wave, and I saw why when a group of men came out of the barn. There were several, all wearing hard hats (showoffs), but there was one in particular who caught my eye: Jasper Wolf.

  He had broad shoulders and was tall but not too tall. He wore a dazzling smile that showed off his strong jaw. He could get whatever he wanted from anyone he wanted, and he always had.

  I nearly dropped my sign. So, not bald. Good to know. If I tried really hard I could live with the disappointment.

  We all gathered to listen as the press conference began.

  The first speaker was a man in a fancy suit. Jasper wasn’t wearing a fancy suit, thank goodness (why did I care?); it wasn’t his style. The fancy suit man said how good this would be for Mintwood and blah blah blah. I don’t think I rolled my eyes but I certainly had my skeptical face on beneath my bronzer and concealer.

  When the first speaker finished, there was polite clapping – not from us, but from the people listening politely.

  The next speaker was older than the first, maybe in his sixties, a man who looked like he was probably part of a construction crew.

  After him it was Jasper’s turn. The crowd fell silent in a way they hadn’t for the others, as if their attention was totally focused on the man in front of them. Mine sure was. He was still just as cute, and there was nothing wrong with admiring a fine specimen (or so I told myself), even if he was going to destroy one of the most beautiful buildings in town for profit.

  As soon as Jasper started talking – all about how this project would bring affordable housing into the area, and the usual blah blah blah – the ghosts appeared at the window. Or rather, not the ghosts themselves, but objects they were controlling. I saw a hammer wave in the windowpane without anything holding it up, then came an old board followed by a soda bottle from the seventies. I tried not to laugh, but it was really hard. It kind of looked like the two soda bottles were giving Jasper bunny ears.

  When a giggle finally escaped my lips, Jasper’s mint green eyes turned to mine and I froze, nearly colliding with Mrs. Snicks in front of me. Instantly I sobered up and stopped laughing.

  Jasper’s eyes lingered on me longer than they needed to, but his expression was unreadable. To break the spell (ha ha) and hide the blush rushing up my cheeks, I held the sign in front of my face. Smart and attractive, yup, that’s me.

  After the speech and more polite applause, most of the spectators cleared out. A few even shook their heads at us, as if we, and not the real estate developers, were the ones defacing the town.

  Meanwhile, Charlie was busy interviewing everyone she could get her grubby little mitts on.

  “I’ll get protest quotes over dinner tonight,” Charlie said, waving to me as she got in her car and sped off. I knew she wanted to be the first to write up the story, and I was glad to see she wasn’t wallowing in her grief over Andy. At least she had work to keep her distracted, and in my opinion he had never been good enough for her anyway.

  As I was watching Charlie drive away, something caught my eye. I looked up to see what it was and found Jasper giving me a curious expression. Had he heard what Charlie had said about dinner, with the clear implication that we’d be having it together tonight?

  I sighed and checked my watch. It was time for me to head out. If I was lucky, the ghosts would leave me alone, at least for tonight. I had come over here and tried to stop the demolition of their beloved barn, hadn’t I? Wasn’t that enough? Didn’t a girl deserve some peace and quiet?

  Greer and Charlie were already there when I got home, and I felt a warmth that surprised me. My grandmother’s house would always be home and I loved it, but there’d been something missing when I lived there alone. The ghosts were there, of course, but that wasn’t the same. I had been well used to them ever since my twelfth birthday, although I had never forgiven my grandmother for not warning me what would happen that day, especially since being a witch could skip a generation and had in fact skipped my mother.

  When I turned twelve, a birthday my grandmother had insisted I celebrate with her, we had been sitting in a rocking chair on the porch in the evening, and bam! Suddenly, there were ghosts milling around! At first I thought it was some surprise light show for my birthday, but my grandmother set me straight, and for a twelve-year-old it was a lot to take in. Come to find out later that as a witch, I started to experience my powers when I turned twelve. My grandmother was so happy and relieved when it turned out I did have them, she could barely contain herself.

  No wonder my mother had always resented her. She had known Grandmother’s secret but hadn’t been able to experience it with her, and that must have hurt. I had seen the evidence of it, in fact. Now she’d up and moved to Costa Rica, leaving me with the house.

  Luckily, Greer was a pyromaniac who couldn’t live anywhere else. Not only that, but she paid me rent.

  Before going inside, I went around to the back yard. There was a pinkish tint still in the sky, which wasn’t fully dark yet, so Mrs. Goodkeep wasn’t visible. But I went over to where she liked to hang out anyhow and told her that her relative was fine and to please remember to keep Charlie out of this. Feeling better, I headed for the house.

  “Hey,” said Greer, who was standing at the kitchen table. Unlike Charlie, Greer could cook. She made the most delicious food as if it was nothing, and somehow the kitchen never even got that dirty when she did. The grease Charlie had spread from the bacon that morning would take months to scrape off the stove.

  “Hey,” I said. “Where’s Char
lie?”

  “In ‘her’ room,” said Greer, pointing her chin in the direction of the back room. The door was closed, but we could both hear banging.

  Every fiber of my being wanted to bring up seeing Jasper Wolf, but I needed to play it cool. Greer would see through me faster than she saw through a pane of glass.

  “What are we going to do about her?” Greer asked.

  I shrugged and said, “I can’t tell her. At least not yet. If she doesn’t end up staying here, it won’t be good.”

  “What if she stays here and one of the ghosts tells her?” Greer asked.

  “I’ll make sure they wished they didn’t,” I said. But the truth was, I had a few resources against the ghosts, but not many. I saw ghosts all the time, but my friends could only see them on my property. I had asked Mrs. Goodkeep to warn the other ghosts that morning about Charlie, and to explain that they couldn’t engage in their usual nighttime antics. They wouldn’t be happy about it, but they would do it, at least for a while.

  “You think she and Andy will get back together?” I asked. If they did, she’d move back out and there’d be no point in telling her.

  Greer snorted, and I was reminded that she had never liked Andy either. “I sure hope not. I know Charlie’s ridiculous, but she can do better than Andy. He didn’t like Charger, and he’s stuffy and boring. What kind of a guy doesn’t like Charger? That’s right, huh Charge?” She looked lovingly at her black lab, who was wagging his tail furiously.

  “I went to the barn protest today,” I said.

  Greer smirked, and I swore, but only mentally, not out loud. Glass, clear perfect freaking glass.

  “I heard,” Greer said, rolling her eyes and chuckling. “Charlie told me how much you were drooling over Jasper Wolf. Still . . . “

  “Damnit Charlie!” I grabbed a stack of napkins still wrapped in plastic and tossed it against Charlie’s door. A second later Charlie appeared, looking as perfect as usual, only she had changed into jeans and a sweater. As soon as she saw me, her face split into a wide grin.

  “So, still not over Jasper Wolf, huh?” she teased.

  “Not you, too,” I groaned. Was I wearing a t-shirt that said Jasper Makes My Knees Weak? No? Then they should have the common decency not to notice!

  Charlie came into the kitchen and busied herself making tea, while I washed the pans from breakfast and Greer finished dinner.

  “He never paid me the slightest bit of attention,” I said. “He was also kind of a jerk.”

  “He was not,” said Greer. “He and Deacon just liked to have a good time.”

  “Speaking of crushes,” I said.

  “Don’t you mean problems?” my friend shot back.

  Greer and Deacon had a long history, which was ongoing because he was the owner of the three apartment buildings within twenty minutes of town. She had begged him not to kick her out of the last one, but he explained that the neighbors didn’t like loud music at three in the morning, and that was that. Greer’s response to the fuss was that hard metal unwound her after a night at the bar, and everyone should like a little Black Sabbath. Shockingly, it had not convinced him to let her stay. She hadn’t spoken to him since.

  “How does he look?” Greer asked.

  “How does who look?” I said.

  “JASPER,” Charlie cried. “She wants to know how the homecoming king looks. He’s hot,” she assured both of us. “Damn. He’s even better looking than he was in high school.”

  “Really, Charlie, that kind of language from you?” said Greer.

  “Also, he couldn’t take his eyes off you,” said Charlie, looking my way.

  I coughed and pretended she’d said something else. “Dishrags on sale, aisle seven!”

  She glared at me. “He couldn’t take his eyes off you!”

  I broke down and argued. “That’s not true! He never even looked at me!”

  “Sure he did,” said Charlie. “The whole time. I thought his eyes were a pendulum. Look at the ground, look at you, look at the crowd . . . you get the idea.”

  “Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Greer, please tell me delicious dinner’s ready.”

  “Not until you admit how cute he is,” said Greer, laughing. “Then you can eat.”

  My face burning, I muttered something about how hot Jasper Wolf was, to hoots and hollers from my friends.

  “Dinner now PLEASE,” I said, and the three of us sat down to a meal.

  Darkness was falling, and it was great to have my friends for company. I was nearly finished eating when something struck me with such force that I set down my fork. A chill crept down my spine and regret slammed me in the face. It felt like when you knock over a glass and you see it tipping off the counter, and then it falls in slow motion, only to shatter into a million pieces on the floor before you can even begin to react. And you know you have to clean it up, but that’s the last thing you want to do. You just wish you could go back a few seconds to before the glass had broken, and do things differently.

  That’s how I felt right at the end of dinner.

  Gracie was home but acting funny, and she didn’t want to see me. Her house had been silent, but what if she wasn’t home alone? She hadn’t answered her door, she couldn’t possibly be that vain? I mean, sure she could, but what if someone had been holding her hostage?

  Concern whirled around me like a pack of ghosts until I shot to my feet, inspiring both of my friends to look at me in confusion.

  “I have to go,” I said. “I’ll be back soon.”

  I dashed out of the house with Greer’s mouth hanging open, stuffed full of pasta, and Charlie shaking her head. Clearly they were asking themselves who could leave such a delicious meal, but I couldn’t take the time to explain while something horrible might be happening to Gracie.

  I practically fell into my car and flew to Gracie’s house. Twilight in Mintwood was pretty, and there were a few walkers and joggers along the road as I drove, most of them wearing fluorescent green so they were easy to spot, except for the one walker who wore pink. But I barely had any attention to spare for them, I was so worried about Gracie.

  I floored it up her driveway, steeling myself for what might be ahead. It was fully dark as I pulled up in front of the mansion, which was also totally dark. The wind shook the trees gently, creating slow-moving shadows from the street lights back at the end of the driveway. Fennel Valley was overlooked by a canopy of stars.

  Gracie’s Mercedes was parked in the same place as before. Despite the fact that there were no lights on inside, I felt the need to knock on the imposing front door. As I expected, there was no answer to my knock.

  I tried again, then slowly started walking around the outside of the house, ordering myself not to be creeped out or terrified by the vast dark silence. In the distance of the fields and woods I saw ghosts of forest animals moving, including deer, fox, and many other critters, mixed in amongst the trees and branches and leaves.

  Gracie’s house was so big that just walking around it was a bit of a hike. She also had a fancy-looking barn and a three-car garage. When I finally got around to the back of the house, I found something terrifying: fresh tire tracks, with a wide tread that could only belong to a truck.

  A vehicle had been parked there recently, but was now gone. Could a vehicle have been there when I’d come into the house earlier?

  Starting to shiver with fear, I hurried back to the front of the house. I was just about to raise my arm again when a voice behind me nearly made me jump out of my skin.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

  I let out a scream.

  Chapter Six

  Collecting myself enough to spin around toward the voice, I was amazed to find that it had come from a ghost.

  “Oh, do be quiet and calm down,” the ghost drawled. My hand was clapped over my mouth, but now I stopped screaming and stared.

  The ghost was a man dressed in a black suit, his hair combed back and shimmering gray. He look
ed vaguely familiar, and I quickly realized that he was the butler I had expected to answer the door earlier, except that he was dead now. I hadn’t been able to see him before because it was daytime, when ghosts were only thin slivers of themselves, but now I was standing out here by myself risking life and limb for Gracie Coswell, and instead of Gracie I got her ghost butler chiding me for being scared of being alone on a deserted property in the dark.

  “Looking for Gracie,” I said.

  The well-put-together man harrumphed. “You never liked Gracie, so what are you doing here looking for her?”

  “Why aren’t you surprised that I can see you?” I countered.

  “Aren’t you Evenlyn’s granddaughter? We all hear about Evenlyn when we pass over. Sure you ain’t got nothing on her, but here you’re standing, so you must have something. I remember you from high school, creeping in here with that hair.” He tsk-ed.

  “Hey, hey, we all made poor choices in high school,” I said. “Mine was bad curl jobs, but you can’t hold that against me now.”

  He gave me a look that said he sure could.

  “Gracie should be home,” he said, clasping his hands behind his back and peering through the window. “I don’t know why she’s not answering the door.”

  “Maybe she’s out at some fancy party,” I suggested.

  “She only has the one car,” he said, checking to make sure it was still parked in the same place where I’d seen it that morning.

  “Date pick her up?”

  “She’s dated all the men she thought were good enough for her and willing, and none of them worked out. Unless Jasper or Deacon changes his mind I’m pretty sure the lady’s out of luck for a while.”

  I was secretly smug that both Jasper and Deacon had always turned Gracie down. I thought better of them for it.

  “Your smugness is showing,” the ghost pointed out.

  Okay, not so secret.

  “I’m Lemmi,” I said. “Lemonia is my full name,” I told him before he could ask.

  “I’m Hank,” he said. “Nice to meet you, but you should be getting on home. She’s not here.”