Wonder Wand Way (Witch of Mintwood Book 10) Page 6

  “What are you thinking?” Charlie asked. She was busily folding all the newspapers back perfectly. If she didn’t, Mrs. Snicks, the librarian, would know why.

  “I’m thinking that the ghost is probably Mr. Curtain. Clearly the ghost is related to the cinema. The films playing on the walls when we left last night tell us that. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else it could be,” I frowned, thinking. “His body was removed. Maybe it’s at the cemetery and that’s why the ghost hangs out there. Maybe it’s what Paws said, though. Places can be just as important to ghosts as the resting places of their bodies. It sounds like that cinema was awfully important to Mr. Curtain.”

  “It was his life,” Gerry agreed.

  “Until it wasn’t,” said Charlie grimly.

  As we left the library we ran into a familiar face.

  “I hear you got a fancy new fence,” said Keith of Mintwood Mucking, who was heading into the library as we were heading out. Usually he didn’t say much to us, so I was surprised to hear him address us so directly.

  I told him that we had indeed acquired a new fence, and were very happy with it.

  He said, “Your fellow do the work for you? Just shows you that the young don’t know anything. Your porch is really what needs fixing.”

  “My porch is fine,” I growled, leaving his reference to Jasper unaddressed. At least out loud.

  As we headed for our second session at the cinema, I thought about how it would be good to have some time there without Liam, so that we could start exploring the ghost situation more openly than we could when he was around. To that end I had brought my wand this time.

  But before we could start work, we needed to refuel. Back at the Daily Brew we found that Bridget was gone and Mrs. Barnett was in her usual spot behind the counter. With as little conversation as we could get away with, we ordered sandwiches to go and hurried over to the cinema.

  Greer was working at the bar for only a few hours today, and she had promised to swing by before we all went home for dinner. She didn’t want to miss anything, but I had a feeling that given what we had found out at the library, and that Liam wasn’t going to be there to hamper us, she just might.

  I was a little worried about having trouble again, as we had had the night before, but the one saving grace I could think of was that ghosts were less active during the day. Paws himself was barely visible when the sun was up, and he was usually sleeping anyhow. When we came back for an evening session at the cinema after dinner, he’d come with us. For now he had stayed home.

  As Charlie and I made our way back to Bright Lights there were a lot more people on the streets than there had been the previous evening. That much was a relief, because I could comfort myself by thinking that if anything went wrong, there might be someone within shouting distance who could come and help us.

  Once we were inside the building, though, my perception changed. I had felt surrounded by people just a moment before, but as the door closed I sensed a hollowness surrounding us. We were in another world, one where the 1940s reigned.

  A cold draft blew over my face and I shivered. There was no sign of the projectors that had come to life during our first visit, but the air itself was telling us that once again we weren’t alone.

  “Great, shall we get to work?” said Charlie. “Back to the theater upstairs?”

  Up the stairs we went. The four boxes we’d been carrying when the ghost had first made his appearance were in the exact same places where we’d dropped them.

  “Shouldn’t you have your wand out?” Charlie asked.

  “I think we’re safe during the day,” I whispered back.

  Charlie didn’t look convinced, but we got to work anyway. This time we tried to stay together. We worked for several hours moving boxes and cleaning. By the time we were finished I knew two things to be true.

  I was exhausted. And we had hardly made a dent.

  Chapter Nine

  Dinner that night was quiet. The three of us sat around the table and silently ate a thrown-together meal. We had chicken, salad, and frozen mixed vegetables, heated up and eaten plain. Once we finished we dealt with the dishes quickly. It seemed that we all had a lot to think about as we prepared for another evening at the cinema.

  I was eager to get back. At night we might have a chance of finding the ghost that was making all the noise.

  “I wish Harriet hadn’t left. It was nice of her to come, but it would have been even better if she could have stuck around,” said Charlie as we headed for the Beetle.

  “I wish she could have stayed too,” I said, “but I’m sure she’ll be back. She did say she’d always come if I ever needed anything.”

  I was just on the verge of driving away when I stopped short.

  “Where is Paws?” I exclaimed. The porch was empty of ghost cats; for that matter, so was the entire front yard.

  “The ghosts are hanging out in the back yard more at this time of year, aren’t they?” Greer asked. She wore boyfriend jeans and a white shirt to work, but when she’d gotten home she’d changed into . . . boyfriend jeans and a gray shirt. She looked comfortable and ready to clean. Charlie and I were wearing similar outfits. It was the work ahead of us that had driven our choices, not any desire to look like triplets.

  “Yes, but I told him I wanted him to come with us tonight. He seemed fine with it at the time, so where is he now?” I glared out the window as if that would suddenly make him appear.

  “Maybe he’s primping,” said Charlie.

  “That’s ridiculous,” I said.

  Oh, how wrong I was.

  The next instant the ghost cat formerly known as Paws came trotting around the corner, looking so unlike himself I did a double take.

  “Do you think he robbed a jewelry store?” Charlie breathed.

  Greer had been grumpy all evening, but now she sat up to get a better look. “He robbed a whole diamond mine.”

  Paws was decked out in sparkling splendor. I had seen him dressed up before, but this was beyond anything he had ever done since I’d known him. He wore a gold headband encrusted with diamonds. He wore cuffs that matched the headband on all four paws. He had also put on a fancy robe adorned with diamonds in the shape of lotuses. He was trotting toward us as if the ground he was walking on was a red carpet, looking left and right as if his picture were being taken.

  I opened the door and he hopped into the Beetle.

  “Your chariot,” I offered.

  He sat on the back seat, but as far away from Greer as possible. “It’ll do. I just hope none of my fans see me in it.”

  “Given that you have so few of them, I’d say that was highly unlikely,” said Greer uncharitably. Paws was unfazed.

  “What are you so dressed up for?” Charlie asked.

  “We’re going to the pictures. You can’t possibly expect me to just wear jeans,” scoffed the cat. He looked meaningfully at Greer’s pants and coughed delicately. Greer’s hands tightened. She couldn’t throttle him even if she tried, but I knew that was what she was dreaming about.

  As we drove, I thought about how grateful I was that Gerry had said she’d keep Liam occupied so we could search for the ghost. If we found Mr. Curtain, it would be beyond awkward to have Liam around to keep us from communicating with him.

  Main Street was deserted and quiet as we made our way to Bright Lights. My gaze swiveled this way and that, but I didn’t see a single soul. The town hall was closed for the day, and all the shops were shuttered.

  “It’s awfully quiet,” whispered Charlie.

  “An excellent setting for a haunting,” said Paws, sounding ghoulish.

  “If a ghost tries to haunt us, we’ll just pay him off by offering him your jewels. That should do the trick,” said Greer.

  “You will do no such thing,” said Paws, scandalized.

  “Watch me,” said Greer.

  I pulled out the key Mrs. Cook had given me and unlocked the side door. Greer flicked on the lights and we all headed inside.
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  Paws was amazed by the whole place. He kept looking around and gasping, calling everything stunning and fabulous. While he explored every nook and cranny, the rest of us got to work upstairs again, moving more of the endless supply of boxes. I figured that since the ghost was surely unsettled by our arrival, we should be there for a while, just working quietly, before we tried to find him.

  I also hoped that if Mr. Curtain saw Paws with us he’d relax. Then again, Paws was about as relaxing as a kick in the pants, and just as dignified. I wasn’t actually sure if his presence would help us or hurt us.

  “This is wondrous,” Paws kept saying.

  As Charlie, Greer, and I busied ourselves moving boxes, Paws kept calling us away to look at this object or that antique. He was excited by literally everything.

  Greer maintained her cool, mostly by going over to the door and acting as a go-between. We brought stuff to her, and she took it downstairs. We had been at it for the better part of an hour when we took a break.

  “Was there any evidence that this Mr. Curtain was murdered?” Greer asked.

  “None at all. They chalked it up to old age and didn’t run many tests,” I said.

  “So why do we think he was murdered?” Charlie said.

  “Because he’s still here,” said Paws. “If he were at peace he’d have left by now. It really is too long to hang around a cinema.”

  As I pondered the question of what had happened to Mr. Curtain, I looked at the stage and realized all over again how incredible this place must have been in its heyday.

  It was sad that old buildings were always being lost in small towns. Everything changed, but sometimes it would be nice if we could just hold onto what had been.

  Sometimes it truly had been better in the old days.

  “Earth to Lemmi, come in space shot witch,” said Paws dryly.

  “What?” I said.

  “We should start looking for Mr. Curtain. It’s getting late,” said Charlie, smothering a yawn.

  “You’re right,” I agreed. “We can split up into groups of two again like we did before and start searching.”

  “I’m not with Greer,” said Paws.

  “You can say that again,” Greer muttered.

  “I’mnotwithGreer.I’mnotwithGreer,” said Paws, repeating the phrase very fast.

  The rest of us rolled our eyes.

  Just as Charlie and Paws moved off into another part of the theater, I thought I heard a thud.

  Greer heard it too, and we paused to listen.

  “What was that?” she whispered. There were no further sounds except the wind making a rattling noise.

  I shook my head. “Probably just the grumblings of an old building.”

  We kept moving. We had just reached stage left when there was another noise.

  This one was much clearer.

  There were footsteps on the stairs.

  Someone was coming.

  Chapter Ten

  “Greer?” a voice called out.

  Charlie and Paws popped up from a far corner, and we all exchanged looks as Greer’s boyfriend Deacon poked his head around the doorjamb. He had a solid build and longish, dirty blond hair. Many a woman he passed swooned. The only woman who had never swooned over him was his girlfriend, and maybe her friends. Lucky for him Greer’s feelings went far deeper than merely appreciating his devilish eyes, mischievous grin, and broad shoulders. We could agree that that would have been enough all on its own, but Greer appreciated the inner Deacon as well.

  “What?” Greer barked.

  Charlie started and I looked at her in surprise. I had never heard her use that tone with Deacon before.

  “I’d like to finish the conversation we were having,” he said.

  “Now? After you found us here to scare us half to death?” she demanded.

  “Sorry. I knocked and called out but no one answered,” he said.

  Charlie was still giving Greer a mystified expression.

  “Get him out of here! He’s going to take our treasure,” Paws yowled.

  “What is it you want?” Greer asked.

  “I thought we needed to finish the conversation we were having earlier. You went away upset. I didn’t like that. I’m a guy. I really had no idea what was going on or why you were mad in the first place, so I thought I’d come by and ask you to explain it to me. That way I’ll know what to apologize for. Believe me, I plan on apologizing,” he said.

  As Greer pursed her lips tightly, she appeared to be slowly inflating. Her cheeks got redder and redder, and poor Deacon glanced at us nervously. It was all too plain that what he had said had not made her any happier.

  “Why don’t you two head outside for a bit?” said Charlie. “We’ll just keep working. Deacon, I hope you understand that we’ll be needing your assistance at some point. A lot of this stuff is very heavy, and we could use a guy around to help,” said Charlie.

  “I’d be glad to. I could probably find a couple of other guys as well. I know Hansen has gotten word that you three are working on this and is very interested,” said Deacon.

  “He’s more than welcome to join you as soon as I know that every investigative angle has been exhausted,” said Charlie.

  Deacon chuckled, but his amusement died on his face when he caught sight of Greer’s expression. “If I don’t see you two again tonight, or ever, it’s been fun.”

  Our roommate led her boyfriend out, her storm cloud expression unchanging as she moved toward the exit.

  “Should we take bets on what he did wrong?” Paws asked. “My money is on breathing.”

  “Do you always have to be so negative?” Charlie said.

  “She looked like she was about to kill him. It was terrifying. You two don’t know what happened?” he asked.

  “We have no idea. Hopefully it isn’t anything too serious,” said Charlie, sounding worried.

  “Right. Given her personality, this is her one shot at love,” the cat muttered.

  “Should the three of us join forces and keep looking for Mr. Curtain?” the cat asked.

  “I definitely don’t want to be by myself,” said Charlie.

  I was glad the three of us were doing this, and even happier because we hadn’t had a chance to explore the rest of the upstairs yet, and now I’d be able to.

  There were several movie theaters upstairs, all of them smaller than the main amphitheater. We peeked into each of them in turn, noticing that they didn’t have anywhere near as much stuff packed into them as the main theater did. In fact, two of them were missing their seats altogether, as if someone had taken them away and sold them after the theater had closed. Another one did have several stacks of old posters in it, and Charlie zeroed in on those.

  “We should show these to Greer when she gets back. She’d really appreciate them,” she said.

  “Where do you think the ghost is?” I asked.

  “I think we should look backstage,” said Paws. “He’s hiding somewhere; apparently he doesn’t want to make an appearance. Backstage makes a lot of sense, because it’s so out of the way.” Without waiting for a response, he headed in that direction, his jewels clinking as he trotted along.

  As we followed him back to the main theater, I gave thanks that at least the noise we were hearing was only Paws, and not the creaking sound of the movie projectors starting without anyone there.

  As we walked down the hallway, I glanced down the staircase at the lobby. The main doors were mostly covered in old brown paper, so old that some of it was peeling. Through the crack in the double doors I could see Greer and Deacon. She was waving her arms, while he was looking frustrated. They were clearly continuing some argument that had started earlier in the day.

  Now I knew at least some of the reason why she had been so quiet at dinner. I had thought we were all pondering the magnitude of the task we had taken on at Bright Lights, but apparently Greer had other things on her mind.

  As curious as I was about Greer and Deacon, I made myself turn atte
ntion back to the task at hand. My friend would come in soon enough and explain what was going on.

  Backstage was the most astounding jumble I had ever seen. There was very little space, with a whole lot of stuff crammed into it. We were forced to go in single file along the back edge of the stage, but the actual backstage area was a little more open. There were tables that looked like they’d been abandoned in the middle of a performance, with very old lipsticks and mirrors scattered around, and even a couple of playbills.

  “I can’t believe people didn’t come back to get their stuff,” I said.

  “I’m sure some people came to get some stuff. We should really ask Honey what happened. I have a feeling she’s going to be able to shed a lot of light on all of this,” said Charlie.

  “I wonder if she’ll also know who did it,” I said.

  “We don’t even know for sure that Mr. Curtain was murdered,” said Charlie.

  “True. I guess I’m too used to investigating murders. I see murder everywhere. I’m sure that might not be the case here,” I said.

  “Hold on, now. Don’t kid yourself. I’ve been waiting decades for somebody to believe me. I was most certainly murdered,” said a man’s voice.

  A tall, thin ghost, stooped with age, stepped out from behind the curtain, blinking at us from behind circular spectacles. In his hands he held several rolls of film.

  “Mr. Curtain, I presume?” said Paws.

  The man looked down at the ghost and smiled. “This would have made quite a movie.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The three of us settled in to talk to the owner of Bright Lights Cinema. He set down his rolls of film and ushered us into chairs, which we placed in a circle so that we could all see each other as we talked.

  Introductions were made, and Mr. Curtain smiled and nodded at each of us. “You had to exist somewhere,” he said to me about my witchy title. “I just didn’t know how to find you. I couldn’t leave this place until I was sure it would be taken care of. As the years passed, I became less and less convinced that that was ever going to happen.”