A Charming Crime (9 page)

She
closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Joy bubbled in her laugh and shone on her
face.. “We thought you didn’t have any spiritual gifts, but your palm says
differently.”

I
pulled my hand away and tucked it under me.

“You
have the gift of homeopathic remedies like your father.” The pleasure was
apparent in Izzy’s smile. “Have you noticed how your remedies really work much
better than Darla’s? She tried to imitate Otto’s, but it was fruitless.”

Otto.
I
hadn’t heard my dad’s name in years. Darla never talked about him. Now I know
why.

“When
Otto died, Darla really wanted to make your life whole. Complete.” There was a
relief in her eyes. She sat down and gently crossed her legs. “She left the village
and continued to keep the shop open because we all used and relied on her
homeopathic remedies.”

“Not
that they ever worked.”
Tee-hee,
Chandra paced nervously in the round
room.

Izzy
shot her a look that would make Mr. Prince Charming shudder. Chandra
disappeared into another room.

“Mac
told us about you making all these new concoctions and how the flea marketing
booth was flourishing.” She nodded to Mr. McGurtle. “That is when I suspected
you might be a spiritualist.”

Spiritualist?
That didn’t’
make sense. Just because I have combined some ingredients makes me a
spiritualist? My eyes narrowed with speculation.

“As
you can see, every shop owner is a spiritualist where their shop name
camouflages their gift since we are open to the public,” she said.

“What
about you?” I questioned Mr. McGurtle. For a spiritualist, he could use some
lessons in manners.

“I
moved to Locust Grove when Darla took you there.” He looked to Chandra who did
a little shimmy-shake into the room. “I was watching over the two of you.
Orders from the village council.”

“Nasty.”
Chandra chuckled.

“What’s
with her?” I ran my hands through my hair to make a ponytail using the rubber
band around my wrist. I was going to deal with Mr. McGurtle later.

“Locust
Grove is nasty. All those wandering spirits crawling around, rubbing their legs
together.” Chandra did an extra shake with a dramatic finish. “Eeck! Makes me
itch thinking about them.”

“Spiritualist’s
that aren’t the cleanest of souls or people for that matter, generally come
back as the creepier insects.” Izzy dusted her hands together.

“Like
bees?” Bees scared the living daylights out of me. Once Mr. Prince Charming
batted at a bee and the bee turned around and stung me. I told Mr. Prince
Charming to never touch a bee again, or if he did, I hoped it stung him.

“Absolutely
not!” Petunia drew back, and put her hands on her hip. “Bees are loyal, loving
creatures.”

She
retreated to the back of the room with her head down, nervously fiddling with the
flowers in her hair. I guessed I had to be careful about what I said about
animals since she was the one who could talk to them.

“We
are going to have to explore all of this later. What matters now is that you
get situated and figure out how Ann got your charm bracelet.” Izzy’s A-line
skirt and hair cascaded down in unison as she stood up.

“So
you know that I didn’t kill her since you’re psychic and all.” I needed them to
confirm that they believed me. I rubbed the new charm bracelet and glanced over
at Mr. Prince Charming. No wonder he was obsessed with cicadas. Was everything
he had done, even picking out the new charm a coincidence, or was he back as
someone else?

Nah.
He
was lying back with his hind leg straight up in the air while he licked
himself. No self respecting spiritualist would come back and do that. . .would
they?
Nah
.

Izzy
snapped her fingers and Oscar handed her the packet. . .again. She flipped it
open and pointed to Number Two in the Bi-Laws. “Spiritualists can’t read other
spiritualists.” She handed it back to Oscar.

“Which
reminds me.” Oscar stood over me with a Ding Dong outstretched for me to take.
“I’m going to have to separate friendship from professionalism. Although I
don’t think you did it, you are the only suspect at this time.”

I
jumped to my feet and snatched the Ding Dong. “You can’t possibly think that I
killed Ann. I only knew her for under an hour, and although she was mean, I’d
never kill anyone.”

Mr.
Prince Charming ran over and did figure eights around my ankles. He always knew
when I was upset. I’ve always heard that animals have great instincts when it
comes to their owner’s emotional ups and downs.

“I’m
not accusing you. Besides, village law states that no one is to be arrested for
a crime. They just can’t move out of the village until the crime is solved.
Including murder.” This time Oscar opened the packet and pointed out Number
Five.

“Are
you. . .” My mouth dropped thinking that Oscar could be a spiritualist. “a
spiritualist?”

“You
need to rest.” Izzy pushed Oscar out of the door before he could answer my
question. “And you need to get settled into Whispering Falls. You will find all
the supplies you need to get started at the shop. Here is the key.” She put the
old skeleton key on the kitchen counter.

Everyone
left, even Mr. McGurtle, who assured me that he would answer any questions I
might have dealing with my new life.

I
looked around my new home, trying to forget about the murder and my bracelet in
Ann’s grasp, but it wasn’t working. Even Mr. Prince Charming paced along the
walls.

How
did Ann get my bracelet? Was my nightmare about her? If it was, would these
nightmares stop? Why did Darla keep this secret from me? Who was I?

There
were many questions I needed answered. And sitting in this house was not the
way I was going to get them.

Chapter
Nine

My first day in
Whispering Falls was turning out to be the worst day in my life. Not only did my
lost charm bracelet show up in a dead person’s hands, but I’d passed out twice,
and found out I was a spiritualist. And I didn’t even understand what that was.

Even though it
was already dark, surely someone was out and about. I grabbed a Ding Dong off the
counter along with the skeleton key to my shop, and Mr. Prince Charming and I
headed out on the town.

The fireflies
danced around and dotted the night sky creating a little trail down Main
Street. No one or nothing was out. It made me wonder if they had locked their
doors tight because the new girl had killed one of their own, or just locked
their doors out of fear.

Not me. I was on
a mission to find out anything I could to clear my name.

Glorybee Pet
Shop was the only store with a light on. Petunia was probably feeding all the
animals. I hoped she was up for company.

The instant
smell of animals hit me when I pushed the heavy electric blue wood door open.
It had wavy yellow metal detailing that resembled the branches of a tree. One
thing was for sure, all the shops in Whispering Falls had the most beautiful
doors that led into amazing stores you’d never knew existed.

No wonder
Whispering Falls was a heavy tourist town. I’d only wished I could’ve shared it
with Darla or my dad.

Meow, meow.
As if he could
read my mind, Mr. Prince Charming stood up on his hind legs and batted at my
new charm bracelet, reminding me that the Celtic knot was going to keep me
safe. At least thinking that was getting me through this crazy mess.

There wasn’t
anything normal about Glorybee. I wasn’t sure, but I swear I saw a hedge hog
run and then roll across the grassy floor over to the real life tree that stood
in the corner of the room.  As sure as I was standing there, a bird skimmed the
top of my head and landed on a branch next to a grey squirrel.

“You behave
yourself.” I scolded Mr. Prince Charming before he could get into any trouble.
He had been known to chase several birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. I walked
over to the tree and as sure as I was standing there, the tree was real all the
way down into the grassy floor. It was as if they had built Glorybee and
forgotten to lay the foundation.

No wonder I
didn’t see any animals in Whispering Falls. They all lived here and were living
the good life in harmony. Even Mr. Prince Charming sniffed around a few dogs,
finally following one to the tree. In a blink of an eye, Mr. Prince Charming
was sitting on the same branch as the squirrel, licking his paws.

Please don’t
swat the squirrel
,
there was already an accused murderer in the family, we didn’t need two.

“I thought I
heard someone in here.” Petunia peeled the canvas gloves off her hands,
exposing the empty leash that was still attached to her wrist, and ripped the
Velcro of the beekeeper’s veil from her head. “I was collecting the sweet
stuff.”

She didn’t
bother batting the handful of bees buzzing around her ear. I cringed at the
thought of getting stung by one.

“I was walking
by and you had your lights on so I thought I’d stop in and say hi.” I wasn’t
going to jump in and ask about the psychic stuff.

“Welcome to my
little part of the spiritual world.” She reached up and picked a flower off the
tree and stuck it in her bird’s nest of a hair-do.  

“How do you know
Ann hasn’t come back?” So much for
not
jumping in. I opened the Ding
Dong, tore it in half, and offered it to her. The duck jumped out of the kid
swimming pool and waddled over.

“Are you
kidding?” She took a bite, inhaled, and closed her eyes. Exactly how they made
me feel. She pinched a piece off and gave it to the duck. “This is delicious.
But back to Ann. She always made her presence known.”

Petunia went
about her chores of feeding several of the animals, taking time to talk to each
one. They seemed to understand her with their responses of purrs, barks,
tweets, and nibbles. A long-haired mutt followed her around. He had a long
scarf covering his head and a couple different strands of pearls around his
neck. Each longer than the other.

I pointed to him
and shrugged. “Does he belong on your leash?”

“Oh no, Elory was
a crystal ball spiritualist in a previous life,” she whispered with the back of
her hand covering her mouth. “He refuses to live without his clothes. You think
that’s bad, you should’ve known him when he was alive. He wore at least ten
necklaces at once.”

I smiled, not
sure how to respond to these animals. She talked to them like they were
two-footed humans.

“Now go on.”
Petunia finally shooed the bees away. Quickly, they flew through the store and disappeared
through the door she had emerged from. She sat down and used the brush to comb
through the Siamese cat’s tail.

I wished I had
another Ding Dong to give her in case she needed a bribe. I made a mental note
to pick up an extra box at the store.

I sat down next
to her and picked up the extra brush near her knee. Several dogs ran over to
and formed a line. The Great Dane was first in line. Gently, I ran the brush
down his back and over his back paws. Petunia brushed a few more before she
seemed to remember I was there.

“Poor Ann. No
one deserves to die. At least she doesn’t have to deal with allergies anymore.”
She motioned for the next animal in line. The hedgehog. With every brush, it
shivered and shook, until it finally curled up and rolled away. “It would be a
shame to be allergic to honey.”

“She was allergic
to honey?” I wondered if Oscar noticed anything funny on the autopsy. Or who
does the autopsies around here? “Patience and Constance does the autopsies,
right?”

“Um. . .hmmm.” She
finished brushing the last animal. Mr. Prince Charming. “He is a very sweet
cat.”

I almost asked
her to read his fortune or see if he was someone in another life, but I didn’t
want to be disappointed. I loved him just the way he was.

“Do you think
that Constance would give me the low-down on Ann’s autopsy?” I needed more answers.
Petunia wasn’t being very forthcoming.

“Patience. Ask
Patience when Constance isn’t around.” Petunia’s hazel eyes had specs of gold
that seemed to glow when she concentrated on something. She stared at me
intently. “Patience knows everything going on around here.”

Petunia picked a
weed next to her leg. She was in her own little world as she crawled around the
grassy floor leaving little piles of crab grass along the way. A goat trotted
behind her gobbling them up.

Mr. Prince
Charming and I left and walked next door to A Dose of Darla. It was time to see
what was behind the old wooden door. I had the feeling I was unlocking my past.

When I flipped
on the light, my eyes had to be deceiving me. My heart leapt up in my throat,
and made my lips turn up into the biggest smile. I hadn’t been this giddy since
Mr. Prince Charming showed up with my turtle charm.

Carefully, I ran
my hands along the tops of the items as I danced to the front of the store.
Darla was all about presentation, and I knew she wouldn’t disappoint.