Spell by Midnight (Witch of Mintwood Book 3) Read online

  And he strolled out of the Daily Brew, the doorbell tinkling as he left. At just that moment I happened to glance at Mrs. Barnett, who was looking after him with a dreamy expression on her face.

  “What does he want you to come back for?” said Charlie.

  “If someone invites me to lunch, I’m going to be pleasant to them,” I said. “Now I have to go check on the Ivy cats sooner rather than later, because I have to be back here for lunch. I’ll let Greer know, don’t worry.”

  Charlie grabbed the sugar and was angrily dumping large amounts of it into her coffee as I left.

  Chapter Eight

  “Hansen Gregory’s too darn smart for his own good,” Charlie murmured later that same morning.

  She had asked us to meet her a little early so we’d have some extra time to wander around downtown Mintwood. Walking up and down Main Street with my friends, I could see that once again there were a lot of strange-looking women around. I had checked the Gazette’s advertising section and found no evidence of any crazy convention going on. I was starting to worry about who these people might be.

  In other news, Ms. Ivy’s house had not been broken into and Greer was excited about lunch. We had passed two ladies, one of whom was saying to the other that she was sure the man in the silo was her dead husband. We had quickly walked on by.

  “I’ve heard so much about this Hansen fellow, but I haven’t properly gotten to know him. This should be fun,” said Greer happily, ignoring Charlie’s groan.

  “Are some of these women giving you strange looks?” said Greer.

  “I don’t know, but I think they might be,” I said out of the side of my mouth.

  “Hello, can you get back to my problem?” said Charlie, who had no patience with our whispering.

  “Hello, having a cute guy wanting to talk to you is not a problem,” said Greer. “Only in Charlie world is that a problem. Also, he isn’t getting too damn smart for his own good, he’s too damn smart for your own good, which is an entirely different thing.”

  Charlie stared at her, taken aback by Greer’s vehemence. “You’re getting upset about it?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m not upset, but I don’t think having lunch with Hansen Gregory is so horrible, really” said Greer.

  “That’s because you’ve never seen him work. He’s as sharp as a nail,” said Charlie.

  “I’m sure he is, but so are you, so you should be fine,” said Greer.

  “He only wants to have lunch so he can interrogate us about the body at Jasper’s barn. He can’t stand it that I get scoops that he doesn’t,” said Charlie, working up to a good rant.

  I was trying to keep my attention on my friend, because I could tell that this lunch was throwing her off, but it was difficult to concentrate. Greer had confirmed my impression that a lot of the strange-looking women were looking at me, and it was giving me the creeps. Every time I made eye contact they looked away, but they were obviously just as aware of me as I was of them.

  “Do you think I could go up to one of them and ask why they’re staring at me?” I said.

  “Sure, as long as you don’t actually want the answer,” said Greer.

  “If one of them isn’t going tell me, how am I going to figure it out?” I said.

  Greer bit her lower lip, thinking, but Charlie stopped and rolled her eyes. “They aren’t going to up and tell you, so you have to find out for yourself. That’s what good detectives and reporters do. If there are all these out-of-towners around, go find out what their daily routine is like. What do they seem to be after? Where are they staying? Stuff like that!”

  “I think we’re getting a pretty clear idea of what they’re after, now we just have to figure out why,” muttered Greer.

  “We were just imagining it,” I said. “Anyway, there’s Hansen now.”

  Charlie groaned but followed me when I headed for the café.

  It was lunch time.

  “Afternoon,” said Hansen as we strolled up to him.

  “Hey, Hansen,” said Greer.

  We all went inside and got in line to order. The lunch rush was well underway, so Charlie hurried off to claim one of the tables in the rear of the café, then came back to stand with us.

  “Thanks for coming,” said Hansen, smiling brightly.

  Charlie scrutinized him, probably to see if he’d brought a notepad or a hidden recording device. I felt sure that if she could have patted him down without his knowledge, she would have done it.

  “Thanks for the lunch offer,” said Greer. “I’ve read a lot of your recent articles. Your articulation of the boat dock situation on Lake Swan was very descriptive and informative. I really felt like I was right there on the water, seeing what the boaters saw and smelling the fresh lake air.”

  “Well, I appreciate that,” said Hansen with a smile. “I try to write vividly enough so that my readers feel like they have the complete picture of any situation.”

  Greer complimented him. “You do an excellent job,” she said.

  Charlie turned her back on Greer and Hansen, rolled her eyes so only I could see them, and pointed her index finger toward her mouth.

  I had to try really hard not to laugh, partly because it was funny and partly because Charlie was being ridiculous.

  After we ordered our soups and sandwiches, we went over to the table Charlie had claimed and sat down to chat while we waited for our orders.

  “You aren’t recording this, are you?” said Charlie, almost glaring at Hansen.

  I raised my eyebrows, but managed not to comment.

  “No, I wouldn’t do that,” said Hansen. “Did you think I was going to interrogate you or something?” His voice was nothing but pleasant. In fact, it sounded a lot like he was trying to keep his amusement in check.

  “I’m pretty sure you’re accusing him of a crime,” said Greer.

  Charlie shrugged. “I’m just looking out for my friends.”

  “I appreciate that,” said Hansen. “It’s also something I would never do, but then, now that you mention my investigative responsibilities, does anyone care to tell me what happened at the barn the other night?”

  “We found a dead body. Well, it wasn’t exactly us doing the finding. Jasper and Deacon climbed down into one of the silos, as I said in my article,” said Charlie.

  “You smelled something terrible?” said Hansen. “I noticed that you left out any speculation about why the body had gone so long undiscovered.”

  Charlie gave him a steely look. “Yes, I did. There’s no point in speculating. Once we find out who the body belongs to, we’ll know a lot more.”

  “There are seven missing persons currently in the area, but the detectives don’t think it was one of them,” said Hansen.

  Charlie tried to hide her surprise but only half succeeded.

  “How do you know that?” said Charlie.

  “I have my ways,” said Hansen. “More importantly, it looks like we can help each other if we work together again.”

  “How’s that?” said Charlie.

  “You and your friends were there, you saw something, and I know you’re leaving out valuable information. I have connections and access to information that you don’t. If we work together we might just get a real scoop,” said Hansen.

  “You’re right, my friends and I found the body and we’re friends of the guy who owns the barn, which gives us an in that you don’t have. I think this time you just want to use us for our inside information,” said Charlie.

  He shook his head. “Someone was murdered. I want to get at the truth. The body was uncovered during the torrential rains that happened last month, after Jasper bought the barn. When Jasper bought the barn, his employee Corey investigated the silos, but since we hadn’t had all that rain yet, the body was still buried in its shallow grave. My guess is that no one had been into the silos since then. I don’t know if you’re worried about Jasper, but I’m sure he didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  I wasn’t sure whethe
r I should be offended at the implication that Jasper had to be cleared or not, but I decided to be happy that Hansen seemed to believe that what had happened at the bottom of the silo had nothing to do with Jasper Wolf.

  Besides that, what he was saying made a lot of sense. About a month ago it had rained for a week, and since the silos weren’t waterproof it wasn’t very far-fetched to think that they had filled with water.

  It gave me the creeps to think about a body in a shallow grave being uncovered, especially in my beloved barn (okay, Jasper’s beloved barn), but since I was the Witch of Mintwood, that was my new reality.

  Charlie sat back in her chair. “I don’t think we should work together this time, but thanks anyway. My friends and I really don’t know anything beyond what I wrote in the article. We were just standing there when Jasper and Deacon discovered the body.”

  Hansen smiled, but I could see that he was disappointed.

  In fact, Charlie had omitted any mention of Macy and Mildred in her article, just to irritate Macy, who clearly wanted as much attention as possible. I thought it was notable that she didn’t mention the women to Hansen, either. Charlie was trying to keep this investigation under wraps, and I wondered just how long she’d be able to manage it.

  Chapter Nine

  Hansen couldn’t linger over lunch, and we had some other things to do as well. I had gotten a text from Jasper that morning saying he wanted us to come and see him at the barn. My heart had fluttered and my cheeks had warmed, because I had resisted getting in touch with him after the fundraiser and I was tickled that he had reached out anyhow. I knew he had a lot on his plate. From a murder investigation to Ms. Sounds, the man was going to be busy this week.

  When I had told my friends about his text, we had agreed to head over to the barn after lunch.

  We still had a bit of time after Hansen left, so we decided to pop into Liam’s costume shop. We hadn’t seen him since the night of the fundraiser, and we knew he’d be as anxious for gossip as the rest of us. As we walked down the street to the shop Charlie said, “It must bother Hansen that I have all the connections in this case.”

  “I think he proved he has hidden connections of his own,” said Greer.

  “Yeah, but if Jasper does any interviews with newspapers, it’ll be with me,” Charlie crowed.

  “If he does an interview at all, he’ll probably do it to save the barn’s reputation and not for any other reason,” I said.

  Charlie shrugged. “I don’t care why he does it as long as he doesn’t do it with Hansen’s newspaper.”

  The conversation ended there, because we had reached the Twinkle Costume Shop. Foolishly, I expected the place to be empty, but it was anything but. In fact, it was so crowded that when we pushed the door open we could barely get inside. There were so many women crammed into the shop that it was hard to move.

  Even more unexpectedly, all movement ceased when my friends and I walked in. For a split second every woman in the Twinkle turned to look at us, then, just as quickly, everyone rushed into motion again.

  My friends and I stood there speechless.

  Liam was frantically ringing people up, and his mother was flitting from place to place trying to help customers. He gave us a wave, but he clearly didn’t have time to say hi.

  Greer looked dazed. “Should we go?” she asked.

  “I don’t think that’s a question,” said Charlie.

  We backed out of the shop, shutting the door firmly behind us. We were halfway down the street when we heard Liam’s voice calling out to us. He was running to catch up with us, and when he did, he had to catch his breath with his hands on his knees before he could say a word.

  “I’m having trouble with this lots of work thing,” he muttered.

  “Your shop is really busy,” said Charlie. “You must be happy.”

  Liam gave us a disgruntled look. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the shop and I love customers, but demanding customers are another thing entirely. They want what they want exactly a certain way every time. It’s ridiculous. Anyway, I must get back to work. I just wanted to thank you for stopping in!” He waved goodbye and hurried back to the shop, and we walked to the car.

  As if we hadn’t had enough excitement for one day already, it was time to go see Jasper and Deacon at the Babbling Brook Barn.

  We piled into the Beetle. The old girl had been behaving well recently, so it was bound to be true that on today of all days, the engine would choose to sputter and cough and act like it was dying.

  “You know smoke is coming out of the back of the car like it’s a chimney?” said Charlie, sounding worried.

  Greer and I glanced out the back window. True enough, great clouds of black smoke were gushing from behind my poor car.

  “If we’re lucky, Henry will be working today. Maybe he can take a look at the car and see what the problem is while we talk to Jasper,” I said. Henry worked for Jasper, and he also seemed to know a lot about cars, which was lucky given that I had one that kept breaking down. He was a nice old guy and had fixed the Beetle for me once before. Yes, I considered Henry to be my personal mechanic, at my beck and call whenever I needed him.

  No, not really. Mostly I was just too stubborn to take the car to the shop. That, and I couldn’t afford it.

  “Lucky would be getting a new car,” said Greer.

  “We’d have a better chance of winning the lottery,” said Charlie.

  “The only way I can afford a new car is if someone gives it to me,” I said grimly, keeping an eye on the car as we drove.

  “Or if we win the lottery,” said Charlie, with a grin.

  We were close to the barn when a flashing blue light behind us caught my eye. I groaned.

  “We’re being pulled over,” I said, steering the Beetle to the side of the road and coming to a slow stop.

  “It’s Detective Cutter,” Greer said as we waited quietly.

  The detective trundled up to my window.

  “Lemmi, do you know your car is billowing smoke?” he said sternly.

  Is the sun shining? Well, not at the moment, but you get my meaning.

  “Yes, sorry. It just started, but I was late for a meeting at the barn, so I kept going.”

  “I’m headed that way too. I thought I’d take advantage of the peace and quiet to ask a few questions, but now I see that you’re going to be there as well.”

  Was he saying that there could be no peace if I was around?

  Probably.

  “There might be someone at the barn who can look at my car. I’m sure he can stop the smoking,” I said, trying to sound cheery.

  Detective Cutter’s face only got more stern.

  “I’ll follow you to make sure you don’t have any more trouble,” he said.

  “If only it were that easy,” I said.

  “What was that?” He leaned forward, his face reddening with the effort of trying to figure out what I’d said.

  “Nothing. The exhaust is going to her head,” said Charlie. She reached from the back seat to roll the window up. Detective Cutter, instead of looking annoyed, looked relieved.

  “That’s a comfort,” said Charlie as we got going on again.

  “That Lemmi didn’t get us arrested?” asked Greer.

  “No, that the car started again,” said Charlie.

  “I agree with you there,” I said.

  “If the exhaust is going to her head, what’s her excuse the rest of the time?” said Greer.

  There was no answer to that one, so Charlie didn’t bother.

  We pulled into an empty barn parking lot with the detective not far behind us. I scrambled out of the Beetle, and to my total embarrassment I didn’t even have to go find Henry, or Jasper, or even Deacon. They had all seen us coming from a mile away.

  “You give a whole new meaning to the term ‘smoke signal,’” said Deacon, grinning broadly.

  I thought about punching him, but I didn’t want to mess up my nails.

  “Well, well, wel
l, if it isn’t little miss ‘My car’s about to explode. Again,’” said Henry. He was covered in dirt and wearing a hard hat, but he gave me a big smile.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I muttered. “She looks fine to me.”

  “You’re so important you needed a police escort?” Deacon teased.

  At least we’d stopped talking about my car.

  “I’d like to ask them a couple of questions, so don’t go anywhere after your meeting,” Detective Cutter commented to all of us in general. “For now I’m going to look around a bit.”

  “Sure, let us know if there’s anything we can do to help,” said Jasper.

  The detective barely appeared to hear him; he just muttered to himself, “Really shouldn’t be surprised that when a dead body turns up in Mintwood again, Lemmi’s involved.”

  I shrank away as five pairs of eyes turned to look at me. I hated being on display unless I was having a super good hair day . . . which was never.

  “What’d he mean by that?” Charlie asked as the detective walked away.

  “I’m sure he meant that Lemmi is great and everything is rosy,” said Greer.

  “What seems to be the trouble with your car?” asked Henry, who was already walking toward the smoking automobile.

  All five of us pointed at the smoke, rather unnecessarily, I thought.

  “Mind if I take a break from work to help the ladies out?” Henry asked Jasper, who was, after all, his boss.

  “Anything they want,” said Jasper. “Come on in,” he said, turning to us as Henry got to work.

  I tried very hard not to look over my shoulder and check on my poor car as we disappeared into the barn.

  “How’s everything going here?” asked Greer.

  The barn was quiet. It was still beautiful, but there was an emptiness to it that made me a little sad. The place should have been filled with music and dancing, as it had been on the night of the fundraiser, but even at the best of times that wasn’t going to be an everyday thing, and it obviously wasn’t possible at all so soon after a body had been discovered on the premises.

  As we followed Jasper up to his office, I noticed that the crime tape was still stretched across the silo door. Jasper rubbed the back of his neck as we walked by, seemingly unconscious of the tension he was betraying.