A Witch on Mintwood Mountain (Witch of Mintwood Book 4) Read online

  “It’s almost as nice as Jasper’s,” said Charlie.

  I made a face at her just so she knew I wasn’t pleased.

  “What? I’m not even allowed to say his name now?” she said.

  “Don’t see why we have to talk about him,” I grumbled.

  “He’s our friend. You two had a fight. Sometimes friends fight, but that’s okay, because it means you’re being honest with each other,” said Charlie.

  The barn was well built and well kept. There was an entire wall of tools, all hung neatly along one side of the space we found ourselves in as we entered. The interior smelled like hay and dirt and animals and sunlight. But as we walked through the building, I started to see empty spots that told us that some of the tools that should have been here were missing, two hammer-shaped spaces, for example, and three where trowels would have fit perfectly.

  “Were the tools taken from here or from somewhere else?” I asked.

  “Farmer Franklin claimed they were taken from here, but I think he might have been lying. He was trying to give the impression of being very organized, but I don’t think he actually is,” said Charlie.

  As the most orderly person I had ever met, Charlie should know if Farmer Franklin’s organizational skills were for real or he was just pretending. Charlie was so organized, she kept three color-coordinated calendars.

  “Good to know,” was all I said out loud.

  We walked up and down and around the barn, but nothing jumped out at either of us that might have been called a clue. Without even having to say it out loud, we both decided we were finished for now, and headed for the exit.

  On the way back to the car, we stopped in and said hi to the dogs. Humphrey came over all bushy-tailed and bright-eyed to greet us. The other dogs were sheep dogs, plus a couple of Labs. They were all friendly and happy to see us, except for two who were busy lying down and didn’t bother to get up for strangers.

  “They’re so cute!” I said.

  “I wish Charger was this well-behaved,” said Charlie. “Don’t tell Greer I said so!”

  “I’m sure she has no idea you think that,” I said dryly.

  Back in the car, I pointed out the obvious. “I didn’t see any ghosts,” I said.

  “They could be shy,” countered Charlie. “Maybe they’re waiting until we leave. In fact, maybe we should stay a little longer.”

  I rolled my eyes, but she was giving me such a pleading look that I relented. For the next hour, we sat in the Subaru and watched the barn, waiting to see if any ghosts tried to sneak inside without our seeing them.

  “Why doesn’t Farmer Franklin just set up a camera, or stay out here all night and see what happens,” I said.

  “He has. He brings Humphrey and watches, but nothing ever happens on those nights. He says he doesn’t believe in cameras,” said Charlie.

  “I believe that,” I said.

  “So what do you think is going on?” Charlie asked.

  “I have no idea, but I still don’t think it’s ghosts,” I said.

  There were a few ghosts skittering across the yard, but they were mice and rabbits. Paws would have been excited about them, except that he’d declined to come. No human ghosts drifted in, and after an hour Charlie agreed that we should get home. It was so late that Greer might even be home from dinner with Deacon.

  “Has there been any news about Kevin and Kay?” I asked.

  Charlie shook her head. “Lena talked to Detective Cutter and said he’s very unhappy, but what else is new? He also told her they’d found only two bodies, not three, and that the anonymous tipster hadn’t said anything about a third. So Chloe is still officially missing.”

  “The car they came in was found at the trailhead when they went missing, right?” I asked. “So she was either taken from the mountain by someone else, or she died there.”

  Charlie nodded. “I was looking back at the articles from after the three of them disappeared, and they said that Chloe has a brother. Detective Cutter told Lena that the brother’s on his way to Mintwood again now that there’s some news of the other two hikers. Hopefully I can get an interview with him, and that might give us some more information,” said Charlie.

  “Just make sure you get to him before Hansen,” I said.

  “Oh, I will. He’s a guy and I’m a girl.”

  “Charlie, I didn’t know you’d stoop to those levels.”

  “I’m not stooping to anything. I’m winning.”

  When we got home, there was a big surprise waiting for us. The farm was surrounded by ghosts.

  Chapter Six

  All the regular farmhouse ghosts, at least the ones I currently knew about, were there. Tank the rabbit was sitting at the feet of Gary the liar. Paws was on the porch. Karen and the other two tea ladies were at their table, and Mr. Bone and Mrs. Goodkeep were hovering nearby. The birds and mice were scattered around the lawn, keeping their distance from the cat, and even Funnel the bloodhound was visiting from the cemetery.

  None of them looked pleased.

  “What did I do?” I asked as I got out of the car.

  “We read that nonsense in the Chronicle and the Gazette about ghosts being responsible for missing tools over at the Franklin Farm,” said Mr. Bone.

  “I don’t believe it,” I said quickly. I had no idea that the ghosts read the paper so faithfully. I needed to make a note to hide it from them. “Just Charlie does.”

  “Hey, thanks for throwing me under the bus,” said Charlie. Then, trying to clarify, she said, “I don’t necessarily believe it, but I don’t know what other explanation there could be.”

  “Someone took them. That someone was human,” said Mr. Bone. He seemed to have been chosen as the spokesperson for this little lecture.

  “I was just there looking into it, and we didn’t see any signs of anyone, either human or ghost,” I said.

  “You have to look harder. We can’t have negative press,” said Mr. Bone.

  “Why not?” I asked. “Isn’t it kind of cool that something is being blamed on ghosts?”

  Mr. Bone clearly hadn’t thought about this possibility, and he glanced at the others. He was just about to cave and agree with me when good old Karen stood up and said, “Certainly not cool. If this nonsense isn’t contradicted firmly, and hopefully disproven to everyone’s satisfaction, we’ll start getting blamed for everything. Then no humans will be held responsible for anything.”

  I highly doubted that, but I didn’t see any point in arguing with Karen. Then again, Karen seemed to dislike me no matter what, so I could have argued with her if I felt like it and probably not made things any worse.

  “We’ll find out who took the tools,” I said. “I promise I’ll clear the ghosts’ good name.”

  “We don’t always have a good name,” grumbled Gary. “Sometimes I’ve worked hard to have a bad name, in fact.”

  “I would certainly like for us to have a good name. It’s only those foolish ghosts that give us a bad name. Most of us are very well behaved,” said Mrs. Goodkeep.

  “Like you?” said Karen nastily.

  “When are you going to let that go?” snapped Mrs. Goodkeep

  “I’ll let you know,” said Karen.

  My first case as the Witch of Mintwood had involved a mystery that Mrs. Goodkeep brought to me. She had asked for my help, but later it turned out that she had lied in the hope of getting her own relatives in trouble. Eventually she was caught, and the ghosts sentenced her to something called Poofing, which they do to each other as punishment for not following the rules. Poofing involved different levels of severity; Mrs. Goodkeep’s hadn’t been very extreme. She had just recently come back to the property, but she didn’t have the same status she had before her banishment. Karen in particular had not forgiven her for breaking ghost rules.

  “Can you stop doing things that make Funnel come here?” Paws complained.

  “Funnel can come here if he wants to,” I said.

  When it was clear that no o
ne had anything to add to the lecture, Charlie and I headed into the house. Greer wasn’t home yet, and there was a light on in Aunt Harriet’s room, I decided not to disturb her. I was exhausted after a long day, and I wanted to get to bed so I could wake up and see Charlie’s article in the Mintwood Gazette about the missing hikers. Charlie was gleeful, as usual, because Hansen Gregory would be furious that she had scooped him.

  I felt a little sorry for him sometimes; it wasn’t his fault that she could see ghosts. Then again, seeing ghosts hadn’t helped her so far in the Farmer Franklin case. I had a bad feeling about that one, as if it was going to get worse before it got better.

  Usually I stayed in bed as long as possible in the morning, lounging under the cozy covers, but this morning was different. I threw off the covers, stuffed my feet into my slippers, and hurried downstairs to read the newspaper and hear how Greer’s date had gone.

  I wasn’t the only one who’d had that idea. My aunt and Charlie were there ahead of me, and Greer came in close behind, looking groggy.

  “I want to see the Gazette too,” I said plaintively, trying to pretend I wasn’t interested in Greer’s date.

  “You can look at it, I already know what it says,” said Charlie.

  My aunt folded the paper and handed it to me. “I was just finishing,” she said.

  Greer even put off getting a cup of coffee to look over my shoulder and read the latest news.

  To my surprise, I didn’t see what I expected on the front page of the Mintwood Gazette. A big advertisement asking citizens to vote for Mayor Clabberd took up a fair amount of front page real estate, but even more shocking was the appearance of an oppositional advertisement about not voting for him because of the ghosts that were overrunning Farmer Franklin’s farm.

  “I’m barely scraping by. I’m on the edge of town so it makes sense that the ghost would come for me first,” Franklin was quoted as saying.

  “Seriously, see? He believes there are ghosts,” Charlie pointed out.

  But the mayor’s race hadn’t succeeded in crowding out all other possible topics. Once I got over my surprise at seeing the campaign ads, I turned my attention to the article about the hikers. I skimmed it quickly, then went back and read it more slowly. “It really sounds like you were there,” I said to Charlie, who beamed.

  “Detective Cutter says it looks like it was just a horrible accident. He again brought up the fact that it was raining the day they went missing, and that if you go off the regular trail it’s hard to spot the cliff where they fell,” I said.

  “It does sound like they just tripped,” said Greer. “Still, it’s a little strange that they both fell at the exact same moment.”

  “Maybe they were walking side by side,” said Charlie.

  “Okay,” I said, “but that doesn’t really explain it. Only one of them would have been right along the edge of the trail. But anyhow, are they going to do another search for Chloe now that they’ve found these two?”

  “Yeah, they aren’t discounting the possibility that she fell too,” said Charlie.

  “We should probably go look for her ghost,” I said. “Although you’d think Kevin and Kay would have mentioned it if she were around.”

  “Maybe there was someone else on the mountain,” Greer suggested, now at the point of taking wild guesses.

  “I guess that’s a possibility,” I said. “Far-fetched, though.”

  “A return to Mintwood Mountain will have to wait until tomorrow, because tonight is the town meeting and I have a feeling there are going to be fireworks,” said Charlie.

  “Because of the advertisement?” said Greer.

  “Yes, I have a feeling Farmer Franklin is going to try and find someone to run against the mayor if his tools keep getting stolen. If any were stolen last night, I think he’ll come to the meeting and confront the mayor sooner rather than later,” said Charlie.

  “And the mayor’s not going to be happy about the advertisement saying what a poor job he’s doing,” I said.

  “Nope. Lena said she called him to let him know that someone had paid for an advertisement attacking him, and he was furious,” said Charlie.

  “What kind of popcorn should we bring?” I said.

  “Every kind,” said Greer.

  “Does everyone go to this meeting?” my aunt asked. She had been so quiet up until then that I had almost forgotten she was there.

  “Most of the town, at least when there’s something interesting happening,” said Charlie. “I suspect a lot more people than usual are planning to go after seeing the paper this morning.”

  My aunt nodded, offering no explanation of why she had asked. “Well, I must keep going through Mom’s papers,” she said. Smiling around the table at each of us in turn, she excused herself and left the room. She had been trying hard, with our help, to get the farmhouse in order for the past week, and we had almost managed to agree on one box of stuff we were going to get rid of.

  It was a start.

  Once Harriet had left, the three of us poured more coffee and continued to chat.

  I told my friends about running into Jasper the day before, taking advantage of my aunt’s having left the room. She got so angry when the name Wolf was mentioned that I had started trying not to mention Jasper when she was around.

  “You could just talk to him and let it go,” said Greer when I had finished my short tale. “He was only trying to look out for you.”

  “I don’t need him to look out for me. I’m an adult. If I want to put myself in dangerous situations, he shouldn’t be getting upset about it,” I said.

  “Fine, but I think you’re making a mistake. It’s only that he cares about you,” said Charlie.

  I ignored her. They were being silly. Jasper and I were in a fight, and we weren’t going to get out of it until he apologized.

  “Even if we did mend fences, how am I supposed to forgive him for the witch hunter thing?” I asked.

  “You mean that thing that a dark witch told you about while she was manipulating you into waiting for her boss to come and break into your house a second time?” Greer asked.

  “I hate it when you say reasonable things like that,” I grumbled. “Aunt Harriet thinks it’s true, and it does explain why my grandmother hated the Wolfs.”

  “I just don’t think we should jump to any conclusions,” said Charlie.

  “I had already heard about your awkward run-in, by the way,” Greer smirked.

  “I can’t believe Deacon told you,” I said, covering my face with my hands.

  “Sure you can,” said Greer.

  But I had no trouble changing the subject. “Speaking of Deacon, how was your date?” I asked, smiling at Greer. Charlie grinned and waited for the fireworks.

  Greer groaned, but she should have known it was coming. “It wasn’t a date,” she said.

  “You can’t even say that with a straight face,” said Charlie.

  “Okay, it was a date that was amazing. I don’t know what’s going on between us, but I like it,” Greer blushed.

  “You haven’t made anything official?” Charlie pushed.

  “We’re taking it slow. A lot of difficult things happened between us before, and neither of us wants to rush anything now. I’m happy right where we are, and I think he is too,” said Greer.

  “Did you talk about Mildred at all?” said Charlie.

  Mildred was a partner in a design firm named Moody and Marble that Jasper had hired to help him as he remodeled the barn. Mildred plainly had her sights set on Deacon, and during the investigation of the Silo Murder the two had hung out a bit. It will come as news to no one that Greer hated her. As the good friends we were, Charlie and I also hated her, although we might have hated her regardless, since she was awful.

  Charlie had to go to work, and Greer was also working the day shift. Left alone at the house with Harriet, I spent my day much like I’d spent the day before, taking care of Truffles and the cats and helping my aunt.

  “
We should practice some spells now that we have the chance,” she said. It was mid-afternoon, and we’d have to start making dinner relatively early if we wanted to be finished before it was time to leave for the town hall meeting. So it was now or never for today.

  “I’d like that,” I said.

  My aunt and I hadn’t done much magic since she’d arrived, but whenever we had a spare moment or two she showed me simple spells. I was still working on beginner stuff and would be for a while, but after Ellie the dark witch had attacked the farmhouse, I knew I needed to learn my magic. My aunt had gone through my grandmother’s spell books, reminiscing about each one.

  “Ghosts 101 was my favorite,” she said thoughtfully. “I loved it when I could suddenly see ghosts. I think that’s when your mom really lost it.”

  “Didn’t Grandmother offer to have her wear jewelry so she could see them?” I said.

  Aunt Harriet grimaced. “Your mother never wanted that. She wanted it to be real or she didn’t want it at all.”

  “I can see how that would be frustrating for her,” I mused.

  Charlie and Greer didn’t seem to mind that they weren’t witches, but then again we weren’t sisters with the same mother who was a beloved witch around town.

  We practiced magic for the rest of the afternoon. I was still saying “Spell” before every command I uttered, but it was feeling more natural. I no longer had the feeling that I needed to wave my wand around desperately to accomplish anything.

  Eventually we had to quit to make dinner. Charlie and Greer came home and the four of us ate quickly before separating to get ready for the meeting.

  Just as Greer, Harriet, and I came back downstairs, Charlie came out of the kitchen holding an uncustomarily large bag. “Ready to go?” she asked.

  “What’s in the bag?” I wondered.

  “Popcorn,” said Charlie.

  “Is Paws coming?” Greer asked.

  “Certainly not,” the cat yelled from outside. As usual he was on his perch watching the birds. When they landed close to him he would actually chase them, and they then they’d fly away. None of them ever seemed to tire of the game. The birds were so annoyed by the cat that they kept sitting just out of reach for the sheer fun of it.