A Spell Of Trouble (Silver Hollow Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) (12 page)

I
ssy didn’t have
much time to think about Stan’s threat or if they had anything on her at the police station. Stan was probably bluffing, but she didn’t doubt she might look guilty. All the more reason to find the real killer. But if they did, would they turn the person over to the FBPI?

Probably not. That would be a fate she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy. Not to mention it would be against their code of ethics. She was honor bound to turn dark witches over to the committee. But how would they get rid of the FBPI? Hopefully their search for paranormals would soon come up empty and they would go back to wherever they came from.

As soon as Dex and Stan were out of sight, she grabbed her phone and texted Raine to let her know she was ready to go to Hans’s place.

A few minutes later, Raine’s yellow Jeep Cherokee pulled up to the curb, with Ember in the backseat. “Gray isn’t coming. He has appointments.”

All three of them looked over at the hair salon. Gray glanced out, smiled, and then mouthed, “Good luck.”

Raine looked at Issy over the top of her Ray-Bans, her peridot eyes wide with concern. “What did the FBPI want?”

“They were just casting about. I don’t think they know anything.” Issy jumped into the passenger seat. In the summer Raine usually drove with the hard top off, and today was no exception. Warm sunlight spilled into the car, heating the black leather seat. The breeze fluffed Issy’s curls as Raine pulled away from the curb.

“Yeah, they don’t seem too smart,” Ember added from the backseat.

“One of them doesn’t seem so bad,” Issy said. Was she defending Dex?

“Which one? The hot one?” Raine slid her eyes sideways to look at Issy, the corners of her lips twitching in a knowing smile.

Issy’s cheeks heated. She wasn’t good at keeping things from her cousins, but she wasn’t about to tell them she’d kissed one of the FBPI guys. That would be like admitting she was a traitor. Why
had
she kissed him, anyway? Obviously she needed to date more if she couldn’t control herself around the one person she should be controlling herself around. She slid on her sunglasses casually. “Was one of them hot? I hadn’t noticed.”

“Have you guys heard anything new?” Ember asked.

“I haven’t.” Raine glanced in the rearview. “You?”

Ember shook her head, her silky auburn hair glistening a coppery reddish-brown in the sun. “Not a thing. Did the FBPI give anything away when they talked to you, Issy?”

“Not really. Stan seems suspicious of me. He mentioned something he’d seen down at the police station that he implied would incriminate me, but I think he was bluffing.” Issy looked out the side window, watching the shops go by. “I wonder how the non-paranormal investigation is going.”

Raine snorted. “Probably slowly. You know how Owen is.”

“
Was,
” Ember said. “He seems to be taking this case to heart. Which is unfortunate for us.”

“Hopefully we’ll be able to solve the case, get rid of the FBPI, and give Owen his killer soon. I’m sure Hans had something to do with it. He might not be the witch that cast the spell, but he could have bribed one to do it for him. He’s got money and power and could probably persuade a less-moral witch to cast a dark spell,” Ember said as Raine pulled up in front of Hans’s building. “Mortimer will let us know if he’s been dealing with paranormals.”

“I hope Hans isn’t in. I just want to get Mortimer and skedaddle,” Raine said. “I don’t want to deal with Hans’s overly friendly attitude.”

They hurried up to the office. The same unfriendly assistant sat at her desk, reading a magazine. She looked up when they entered, a frown marring her perfectly smooth forehead when she recognized them. “I hope you came back for your plant.”

Raine’s face scrunched up in concern. “Why? Did something happened to him… err… it?”

The girl gave her a funny look. “Not really, but that plant is nasty. I swear it reached over and snagged the sleeve of my sweater. Pulled a thread right out.” She thrust her arm out to show them. “And I think I saw it gobble down a fly.”

“Well, it is a Venus flytrap. I would think you’d be happy to have the flies taken care of in here.”

“You do have a point. But I don’t think your community initiative is working very well. Nobody even sees the plant except Hans and the people that come to do business with him.”

“You’re right. In fact, that’s what we figured, too, which is why I’ve come back to get him. The plants are much better in a more public place.” Rain glanced toward Hans’s office door, which was slightly ajar. “May we?”

“Sure. Go right in. He’s not here.”

The girl went back to her magazine, and Issy, Raine, and Ember hurried into the office. Issy was surprised to see Mortimer standing tall in the windowsill. He looked to be in good health. Not wilted. She glanced at Raine. “He’s not wilted?”

Raine was over at the pot, poking her fingers in the dirt and brushing dust off Morty’s leaves. Issy could’ve sworn the plant leaned over and rubbed one of his flowers on her shoulder.

“Does that mean no paranormal business?” Ember asked.

“That’s right. No paranormal business.” Raine’s voice dripped with disappointment.

“Well, that stinks.” Ember glanced toward the partially open door. “But while we’re here, there’s no reason we can’t look around…”

Ember turned her attention to the stack of manila folders piled neatly on the desk.

Raine tried the file cabinet and, after finding all the doors locked, turned to a small bookcase.

While her cousins were busy rifling through Hans’s things, Issy scoped out the room. It was a small office, only about ten feet by twenty feet and furnished with a mahogany desk, oak file cabinet, and matching oak bookcase. Two plastic guest chairs sat on one side of the desk, and a cushy leather office chair sat behind it. The carpet was indoor-outdoor in blue, the walls chalk white. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for. Something out of the ordinary, she supposed. As she crossed over to the other side of the desk, something under one of the guest chairs caught her eye. A dried leaf of some sort—round and coiled. She picked it up, turning it in her fingers.

“Fiddlehead fern.” Raine peered at it over her shoulder. “They’re kind of rare. I wonder how one got in here?”

“I’m not sure, but—”

“Hey, guys, check this out.” Issy was interrupted by Ember, who stood at the desk, with one of the files flipped open. “This file has stuff on it about the Vonner—”

“What are you people doing?” The assistant stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips.

“The plant lost a leaf, and I was just getting it.” Issy held up the fiddlehead fern leaf. “See?”

Ember flipped the folder shut while the assistant squinted at the leaf.

The woman’s gaze drifted from the leaf to Mortimer, her brow creased as if wondering how the round, coiled leaf would’ve come from Mortimer, whose leaves were flat. They didn’t stick around to wait for her to figure it out. Ember pushed her way out the door, with Issy following. Raine, cradling Mortimer’s pot in her arms, hurried to catch up, the top of the plant jigging and bobbing as she fast-walked out of the office.

“Well, that didn’t work out,” Ember said once they were in the hallway.

“What did you see in the file?” Issy whispered.

“I’m not sure. It looked like specifications on the Vonner land. Plot prints and things.”

“So Hans must be serious about buying it,” Issy said.

“Yeah, but Mortimer wasn’t wilted. So if he is buying it and he used witchcraft to get rid of Louella, he didn’t talk about it in his office.”

“Well, maybe he met with the witch somewhere else,” Issy said.

“That’s right. He might not have wanted to be seen with the witch—”

Ember was interrupted by the bathroom door opening. They all turned toward it to see Brittany Chase, who looked just as surprised to see them as they were to see her.

“Oh. Hi.” Her gaze drifted past them as if she were looking for someone. “Where’s the other cousin?”

“You mean Gray? He’s working.”

“Oh? That’s right, the hair salon is open late tonight, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Why? You need a haircut?” Ember glared.

“Maybe just a little trim, but Chrissy’s waiting in the car. Gotta go.” Brittany frowned at the dried-up leaf in Issy’s hand then tossed her long hair over her shoulder and headed toward the front door.

“What’s
she
doing here?” Ember asked.

“I don’t know. But ‘Chrissy’ must be Christian Vonner. Maybe they were visiting Hans?”

“Maybe the Vonners
are
doing a deal with Hans.”

Issy shook her head. “Fred Vonner seemed pretty adamant that he didn’t want to sell his land.”

“Maybe it’s not Fred. Maybe it’s Christian. Maybe Christian and Brittany are going behind Fred’s back and they dropped off the plans to Hans.” Ember narrowed her eyes in the direction Brittany had just exited. “She could be a dark witch. She seems like the type.”

“But if so, they didn’t talk about paranormal business.” Raine pointed to Morty.

“Did any of you get a paranormal vibe from her?” Ember asked. “Because I didn’t even get a twitch.”

Issy hadn’t, but just in case, she tuned up her senses and squinted in the direction Brittany had walked off. Nothing. “Nope. Not even a tingle.”

“Me either,” Raine said.

“But if Hans is involved, then why would he hide Gray’s athame in Louella’s desk?”

“Good question. I can only assume the person who did that might’ve been trying to connect Gray with Louella somehow,” Issy said.

“To frame him?” Ember asked.

“Maybe.” Issy held up the dried leaf. “I’m not sure what is going on, or how Hans is involved, but I was starting to tell you in the office that I saw these fiddlehead ferns out by the purple spotted salamanders.”

“Which means either Hans or someone who visited him”—Raine tilted her head in Brittany’s direction—“has probably been out there.”

L
ater that night
, Issy was still mulling over her suspicions about Hans, Brittany, and Christian as she drove home. Was their interest purely in the rezoning, or did one of them also have an interest in the salamanders? And what about the vague threat Stan had made regarding something he’d seen on her at the police station? Was he bluffing, or did the police really have some kind of evidence on her? But how could they? She hadn’t done anything wrong. And, if there was something, wouldn’t Dee Dee have mentioned it to her?

As she came around the corner of the narrow dirt road to her cottage, she spotted a blue-and-white car in her driveway. Her heart jerked in her chest. The police?

No one was in the car or at the front door. She raced around the side of the house, practically skidding to a stop as she saw Dee Dee bent over, inspecting—or was she sniffing?—a potted plant. The plant hadn’t been there this morning, and when Issy got a closer look, she was startled to recognize it as a jack-in-the-pulpit plant.

Bella scampered up beside her, eyeing Dee Dee cautiously.

“What are you doing?” Issy asked.

Dee Dee turned around, her golden eyes reflecting an accusing glint. “Tracking the scent of this.” She tilted her head toward the plant. “It has a distinctive scent. I sniffed the others that Raine planted and thought that if I followed the scent, I could find the one that had been dug up and, therefore, the killer.”

Was Dee Dee accusing
her
of being the killer?

“And you found it here?” Issy’s voice was tight with defensiveness.

Found it here or planted it here?

Issy’s eyes drifted down Dee Dee’s police-issue uniform to her black boots, the image of them conjuring up the frantic thoughts of the salamanders. Her earlier doubts about Dee Dee started to resurface, but she pushed them down, reminding herself of their long friendship. Being a werewolf, Dee Dee had an extraordinary sense of smell, and Issy knew she often used it to sniff out suspects, so it wasn’t unusual that she would have followed the scent of the plant here.

“Yes. Do you have any idea how it got here?” Dee Dee asked.

“Of course not. Do you?”

Dee Dee narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure you’re telling me everything?”

Issy got the feeling that Dee Dee knew something that she didn’t, and Dee Dee clearly thought Issy knew something she wasn’t telling. But she wasn’t withholding any information. Correction, there
was
one thing. She hadn’t told anyone about the kiss she shared with Dex. But that was personal business and had no bearing on the case, as far as she could see. And how would Dee Dee even know about that?

“What do you mean? I don’t know anything,” Issy said.

Was Dee Dee pumping her for information or just doing her job as a cop?

“What’s going on?” Issy spun around to see Owen standing at the corner of the house. She glanced back at the plant, noticing that Dee Dee was standing in front of it, blocking it from Owen’s view.

Issy sucked in a breath, wiggled her fingers in the direction of the plant, and whispered “
Pallium
” to cast a cloaking spell that made the jack-in-the-pulpit look like a small ficus tree.

Owen craned his neck to look behind Dee Dee. Dee Dee glanced back at the plant, her brows jerking up when she noticed its disguise.

“Nothing,” Dee Dee said. “What are you doing here?”

“I was driving by and saw the cruiser in the driveway. Thought I would check in.” Owen glanced back at the plant uncertainly. “Wasn’t that…”

“A ficus tree,” Issy said quickly. “Adds a little bit of tropical flair to the patio here. I just got it from Raine. What do you think?”

“Looks good.” Owen turned his attention back to Dee Dee. “So why
are
you here?”

“Oh, I was just stopping by to drop something off.”

Issy’s eyes flicked to the plant.

“I see.” Owen’s eyes darted around Issy’s backyard as if he were taking inventory. Was he looking for something? She couldn’t imagine what. He’d been to many parties at her little beach, and nothing in her backyard would be new to him, other than the plant.

He slowly walked around then bent down to pat Bella, who had been following him. Issy got the impression he was stalling, that he wanted to say something but was uncomfortable with it. Finally he spit it out. “How well did you know Louella?”

Why was he asking her that? “Not very well. As you know, she didn’t like me or my cousins.”

“So you weren’t in the habit of visiting her?”

Issy thought about her trip to Louella’s house. The only time she’d been there was after Louella died. She never actually visited Louella. Did Owen have evidence to the contrary? And if so, should she pretend she’d been there to visit her? Issy wasn’t very good at lying, so she opted for the truth. “No. We weren’t on visiting terms.”

Owen nodded slowly, his eyes studying her. “Huh… Okay, then I guess I better go back to work.” He darted to look at Dee Dee then at Issy before turning around and walking off.

“What was that about?” Issy turned to Dee Dee, who was also studying her intently.

“You tell me.” Dee Dee held her gaze for a few seconds, and then when Issy didn’t say anything, she turned and followed Owen.

Issy’s stomach fluttered. She didn’t like the way things were going. Owen was acting strangely, and it was obvious Dee Dee was up to something.

She turned her attention back to the ficus plant, watching it slowly dissolve back into the form of a jack-in-the-pulpit. A feeling of foreboding washed over her. It was obvious someone had put the plant there to frame her for Louella’s murder. Not the paranormal investigation, though—the regular investigation. Could it be the same person who had planted Gray’s knife in Louella’s house? She didn’t think so, because that person would’ve been trying to frame Gray for the paranormal murder.

Was it possible two separate people were trying to frame them? Or was it the same person?

Either way, Issy knew one thing. Whoever it was was raising the stakes, and Issy and her cousins needed to act fast before one of them ended up in jail… or worse. She whipped out her phone and texted her three cousins that they needed to have an emergency meeting.