2 Yule Be the Death of Me (22 page)

“Natalie has
nothing to lose.” Joshua quipped. “Why not cast it on herself?”

Vivienne shook
her head. “I don’t know the specifics. When I asked Nana Mary about it she said
it only worked on a victim who was cheated out of their natural fate. Something
that rarely happens.”

“So Natalie
was fated to die at the hands of Edgar
Rothwell
, but
Connor wasn’t?”

“That’s a good
guess.” Vivienne replied. “We may never know why, that’s what makes working
with dark magic such a risky proposition.”

“Still, this
seems like an awful long-term plan to slowly let Cayuga Cove get strip mined
into oblivion.” Joshua remarked. “How could she be sure everything would work
out to that end?”

“This company
takes short cuts and the men are paid extra money to do so. They don’t need to
follow the rules.”

“So they still
need time to get all the mineral rights from the property owners and such.”
Joshua argued.

“No. That was
Robert’s plan to make money.” Vivienne interrupted. “Natalie’s plan only needed
one parcel of land to start drilling. Gus Holt’s.”

“The same Gus
Holt who saved you from suffocating in a sunken grave?”

Tommy meowed
and emerged from the bedroom, his yellow eyes blinking in the bright light.
Vivienne reached down and ran her hands along his back as he rubbed against her
legs. “While they lived in the trailer park, she still had access to all the
information Robert’s company had accumulated.”

“I’m following
you.” Joshua replied.

Vivienne
pulled out an email she had printed from Samantha’s legal team’s research. “One
of the tactics this shady gas company uses is scouring the newspaper legal
section during tax time when all the delinquent property
owners
names are published for not paying on time. They match up the property
addresses with their gas deposit research and look for any matches.”

“Gus Holt has
one of those delinquent properties.” Joshua added. “He charges hunters a fee to
use the land during deer season. A couple of the guys at work do it every year.”

Vivienne
pulled up the title search and printed it out. “So he makes maybe one or two
hundred dollars off of that, but it’s not nearly enough to pay the full taxes.”

“That sounds
logical.” Joshua nodded.

“Natalie finds
this property deed with Gus Holt’s name on it and now she has a motivated
seller.  She tells him about this new company paying top dollar for
mineral rights. As a renter on the Tall Pines Grove property, they have no
legal claim to any royalties earned by gas production. But to a property owner,
it could be like a lotto jackpot win.”

Tommy moved
over to Joshua’s legs and rubbed against them. “So he sells his rights and the
company starts drilling out in his field where very few people will see what is
going on.” Tommy jumped up onto his lap and head butted Joshua. “Natalie starts
up these Bad Santa notes exposing the town’s secrets to keep everyone from
paying attention to what a shoddy job this company is doing.”

Vivienne took
a deep breath. “The company started the exploratory drilling process just the
other day and are expecting to hit the gas pocket on December 24th.”

“Christmas
Eve.” Joshua looked at the calendar.

“The last
thing Natalie told me was that everyone here would be dead before Yuletide.”
Vivienne shivered. “The company breaks into the gas pocket, Natalie sabotages
the equipment, and the entire town is blown to bits from an explosion of
hellfire.”

“Not on my
watch.” Joshua stood up, placing Tommy onto the sofa. “We’re going to make some
calls and get a safety inspection team out here pronto.”

“I’d feel
better if we could get them and their equipment out of town for good.” Vivienne
sighed. “We also have to stop her from setting another sabotage up with the
bake sale tomorrow. If lots of people get sick, we could have chaos break out.”

“We’re going
to fix that too, before she can light the fuse.”

Vivienne
picked up her phone and started to dial. “It’s time we let Miss Octavia in on
this plan.”

“You trust her
with that kind of information?”

“She has the
tools we’re going to need to stop Natalie.” Vivienne reminded him. “And you’re
going to need her help to catch her.”

“I trust her
if you do.”

Vivienne
winked at him. “Miss Octavia,
it’s
Vivienne Finch.
Let’s have a talk about setting a banshee trap. Sure, we’re free tonight if you
are.”

“I better get
the coffee maker going.” Joshua smiled at her. “It’s going to be a long night.”

Sunday, December 15th

The bake sale
at Our Lady of the Lake Church consisted of ten folding card tables that were
setup in the lower level reception area where weekly bingo games were held.

As she moved
past the gaggle of church parishioners vying for a peek at what goodies were
most likely to sell out first, they barely paid her any attention. Most of the
glances, she suspected, were directed at the foil-covered plate in her hands.
Was she bringing the highly coveted no bake cookies? Even though they were
perhaps the easiest item to make, none of the women could ever find time in
their busy schedules to make them at home. Thus, they gained a prestigious
value at the bake sale. A sort of sugary holy grail that everyone quested for.

“Vivienne, so
nice to see you out and about after your misfortune.” Suzette Powell smiled
broadly at her.

“Thank you.”
She replied.

“I brought my
famous peanut butter thumbprints.” Suzette pointed to a large oval platter
where bags of four were neatly tied up with red and green curled ribbon. “I
would just love to make something more challenging, you know. Like a Neapolitan
mile high cake, but when the public demands a favorite, I just hate to
disappoint.”

“That’s true.”

Suzette
reached for the foil covering her plate. “So, what did the famous baker of Main
Street bring today?”

She gently
slapped her hand away. “It’s a secret.”

Suzette’s jaw dropped
slightly in annoyance. “Oh, Vivienne Finch, I was only kidding.”

“I really need
to set up at the table in the corner, please excuse me.” She pushed her way
past Suzette and disappeared behind a quartet of blue-haired ladies in purple
choir robes who were admiring a joyously decorated yule log cake.

 Suzette
turned to Clara
Bunton
, who had just arrived with two
coffee cakes in her hands. “Someone is in a snit this morning.”

“Who are you
talking about?” Clara asked.

“Vivienne
Finch.” Suzette waved in the direction of the choir ladies. “You’d think she
has gold from Fort Knox under that foil.”

“Well, she had
quite a bad week.” Clara rationalized. “You try falling into a grave and see
how you feel afterwards.”

Suzette shook
her head. “Boy, there’s no shortage of nastiness in town lately.”

“She saved you
from getting wrongfully jailed not too long ago. Where’s your gratitude?”

“I have
thanked her numerous times, Clara
Bunton
, and you
know it.” Suzette’s hands went to her hips. “As I told Vivienne, we have to
keep friendship and business in two separate worlds.”

“Is that what
you’re going to write in the next Bad Santa note?” Clara quipped.

“How dare
you.” Suzette reached upwards with her right hand to strike Clara across the
face, until the sudden hush of the crowd brought everything to a standstill.

Clara blinked
in surprise. “I’m sorry, Suzette. I don’t know what came over me.”

Suzette
lowered her hand. “No, it was my fault. I suddenly just felt so angry inside.”

The general
murmur of the crowd struck back up.

“I blame it on
an early morning and not enough coffee.” Clara tried to lighten the mood.

“I wish I
could blame that, but I’ve already had two cups here this morning.” Suzette
relieved Clara of one of the cakes in her arms. “Let me help you with that.”

The organist
started the first hymn, announcing that the doors to the sanctuary had been
opened. The crowd began to file toward Father William who stood at the entry
way shaking hands and welcoming them to morning mass.

*            
*             *

Carlton Jones
smiled as he passed through the crowd to locate the cash box inside the church
office. As he turned the corner past the restrooms, he nearly ran head first
into Vivienne Finch. “Oh, pardon me.” His reading glasses slipped from his
jacket pocket and skidded across the slick floor.

“Let me help
you.” She reached down and snagged the glasses in her grip.

“Thank you,
young lady.” He reached out for them only to have her plunge her ice-cold hands
around his neck. Unable to cry out, the older man fell against the wall and
slumped slowly to the floor as his oxygen ran out.

“You’re
welcome.” She hissed and dragged his body into the men’s room.

She dropped
the glamour spell, as her power was fading faster than she could keep up with.
After leaving him inside one of the stalls, she hurried out into the hall to
rest a few minutes more and compose her energy.

“Vivienne
Finch.” Suzette Powell’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, I thought you were someone
else.”

Natalie,
caught off guard, lowered her head, allowing her hair to hide her face. “The
restrooms are closed while I clean them. One of the toilets overflowed.”

“I wasn’t
going to use the restroom.” Suzette replied. “I was looking for my friend.”

“There’s no
one in here.” Natalie spoke quietly. “Just me.”

“Do we know
each other?” Suzette puzzled. “You look sort of familiar to me.”

Natalie shook
her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Do you know
Vivienne Finch?” Suzette asked.

“No.” Natalie
answered.

Suzette folded
her arms across her chest and sighed. “She’s not inside for service and I know
I saw her come down this hallway just a bit ago.”

“Maybe she
went home after she dropped off her baked goods?” Natalie asked her.

“Could be.”
Suzette acknowledged. “How did you know she had baked goods?”

“Uh.” Natalie
stammered. “Most of the women down here were bringing things to the bake sale.”

“Are you sure
you haven’t seen her?” Suzette pressed. “Is she trying to avoid me now?”

“I’m just the
cleaning lady.” Natalie averted her gaze from Suzette.

Suzette
exhaled in frustration. “Well, I was woman enough to try to find her and
apologize if I said something to offend her. But I’m not going to chase her
down.”

Natalie
shrugged. “I have to finish cleaning.”

“Of course.”
Suzette turned around and walked away, muttering under her breath.

Natalie
slipped back into the men’s room and pulled out the reading glasses from her
pocket. She concentrated, wringing all the dark magic she could muster to
change into the image of Carlton Jones. She dropped down to one knee, as
casting the spell sapped her strength. She would need something other than her
hands to carry out the next part.

*           
*             *

Joshua
Arkins
pulled his Jeep into the parking lot of the church
and chose a spot far in the back area.

“Are you sure
this is safe?” Miss Octavia asked.

“Just stay
down and keep out of sight until I need you.” He instructed. “Are you sure you
have everything you need to trap her?”

“She assumed
Vivienne’s form just as we thought this morning
.“
Miss
Octavia surveyed the parking lot full of cars. “Spirits don’t like chaos, they
are definitely creatures of strict habits.”

“So what did
you end up giving Natalie when she showed up this morning?”

“A harmless
blessing potion. It’s supposed to soothe the nerves and calm the spirit.”

Joshua nodded
with agreement. “Smart move. Given the mood of everyone here, that could be
extra helpful.”

“That’s the
general idea.” Miss Octavia cracked the passenger side window as the sun warmed
the interior. “Wasn’t there a shady spot to park in?”

“Not this far
back in the lot.” Joshua replied as he glanced at his watch. “We don’t want to
take a chance on Natalie spotting you before we can act.”

“The things I
do for magic.” Miss Octavia chuckled.

“The things we
both do.” Joshua lowered his window a tad and gave a listen. As the full moon
was approaching, his wolf senses were coming into bloom. His sense of smell and
hearing increased with each passing day. “They’ve started.”

“Good.” Miss
Octavia replied. “She won’t be anywhere near that sanctuary while the mass is
going on. It would drain her energy quickly.”

Joshua stepped
out of the Jeep and gave one last look at Miss Octavia, hunched down in the
back seat with a two way radio in her hands. “Don’t use that unless it’s an
emergency. It could blow our cover.”

“Right.” She
clicked the two way on and kept it close to her ear. “Just tell me when to come
and I’ll be there in a flash.”

“Affirmative.”
He closed the door and walked the distance across the parking lot to the
entrance of the church. The sound of his boots, echoed between the rows of cars
all lined up for morning mass. It felt strange to be dressed up in a suit and
tie, but he had to blend in with the others as he targeted Natalie.

As he pulled
the main door open, he gave one last look at the Jeep and took a deep breath.
He hoped the plan would work and that everyone would be back to normal by
nightfall.

“They’ve just
started.” An older man dressed in a dark suit approached him with a flyer
announcing the bake sale in his hand. “There are some open pews along the back
right side.”

“Thank you,
but I must use the restroom first.” Joshua smiled.

“Deputy
Arkins
, I hardly recognized you.” The older man’s eyes
widened. “I didn’t know you were Catholic?”

“I’m not.” He
felt his cheeks redden. “I was up early and since it’s so close to Christmas I
thought I’d like to enjoy some of the spirit this morning.”

“Why yes,
you’ve come to the right place.” The man handed him a bake sale flyer. “You
know about this bake sale after service, don’t you?”

“I do.” Joshua
replied. “It’s a shame Vivienne couldn’t be here to see...” His voice trailed
off the moment he realized his mistake.

“Miss Finch
was here earlier bringing something delicious.” The older man cocked his head.
“Didn’t you know that?”

“I did.”
Joshua chuckled and patted the man on the shoulder. “I had to work the night
shift last night, so I didn’t have a chance to see her this morning.”

“Of course.”
The older man chuckled. “Playing with your sleep schedule like that is bound to
make it hard to remember things. Just wait until you’re older like me.” He
adjusted his reading glasses on the bridge of his nose.

“You’re
sharper than I am this
morning, that
much is for
certain.” Joshua hoped his cover up was enough. “Where is the restroom again?”

“It’s
downstairs, past the kitchen and to your right. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you.
I’ll see you inside.” Joshua smiled and headed for the stairs as the usher
returned to his post near the sanctuary doors.

As he reached
the bottom level of the church, his sense of smell was assaulted by the row
upon row of sugary treats readied to sale. He usually never went to Vivienne’s
bakery this close to the full moon because the overwhelming sweetness made him
a bit nauseous.

As he walked
past the kitchen, the restrooms were located just ahead and to the right. He
stepped into the men’s room and noticed one of the stalls was occupied thanks
to the pair of black oxfords straddling the toilet. Once he secured the door
lock, he reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a coiled length of silver
thread that Miss Octavia had blessed to keep Natalie bound securely. Once under
control, he’d radio for Octavia to come find them and cast a silencing spell
upon her mouth and throat, allowing them to quietly make an escape to the
cemetery and perform the banishing ritual.

The door to
the bathroom opened as a single set of footfalls echoed inside. A lonely
melodic tune was whistled as the bathroom
  visitor
waited patiently for his turn.

Joshua slipped
the items back into his coat pocket and flushed the toilet. He unlocked the
stall door and opened it to find the older man with the reading glasses
blocking the door.

“You found
it.” The older man smiled and then swung a heavy wooden baseball bat at his
head.

Joshua dropped
to the cold floor with a thud. He groaned and reached for the radio that was
hidden on his belt behind his suit coat.

“You think I’m
stupid?” The older man laughed. “I know all about your plan.” He swung once
more.

Joshua saw
stars and then everything went dark.

*            
*             *

  Miss
Octavia waited patiently in the back of the Jeep with the radio. It had been
nearly a half hour and still she hadn’t heard a peep from Deputy
Arkins
.

Her fingers
hovered over the talk button to ask Joshua if he was still okay, but she
thought better of it. If he happened to be sneaking up on Natalie at that exact
moment, it could ruin the entire plan.

She would try
to focus on something pleasant as she waited. The warmth of the Jeep in the
sunlight reminded her of the carefree days growing up on Barbados as a child.
She could picture the clear blue ocean beneath her father’s glass-bottom boat,
as he took her out when tourist excursions weren’t scheduled. She would always
ask him to try to find the mermaids hiding beneath the waves and he would tell
her stories of how he saw a few just the other day with a boat full of
tourists. How they waved to him and then disappeared beneath the surface to
frolic amongst their coral playgrounds.

She missed him
so. He had left this world more than a decade ago, but still her heart ached as
if it were yesterday.

The shrill
blare of sirens interrupted her nostalgic trip into memory. She remained
hidden, waiting for the radio to tell her it was time to take action with her
magical spells to restrain Natalie and force her to leave for good.