Enchanting Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 3) Page 15

  Yes, I’m deathly afraid of clowns. That’s never come up before now, but I thought I’d throw that tidbit out there, given the circumstances. You know, just in case one sprang up from one of the boxes and all you’re left with is my silhouette through the wall.

  I guess I could compare my fear to Leo’s arachnophobia.

  “Then let’s get out of here,” Heidi replied, though her response was hard to hear and kind of wobbly. “Did you grab the picture?”

  “No.” I redirected my phone so that I could locate the picture. It had been moved by the red silk when I’d thrown the tablecloth over our heads, but it didn’t take me long to locate it. “Here it is. Now let’s get out of here and figure out how we’re going to make it seem like we were in the crowd the entire—”

  What was I staring at?

  Fred.

  I’m pretty sure that my boots came off the floor at the sound of Leo’s voice. He’d returned, though this time he was sitting on a box behind me. I’d startled Heidi to the point where she’d spun around in a circle, shining the light on anything that could have been responsible for my scare.

  That photograph wasn’t supposed to be in there. I wonder if Ms. Drake put it back when she and your mother were here many years ago. That would explain why your mother thought it was safe for you to find the billfold.

  “It’s just Leo,” I told her after I’d gotten my heartrate under control. My mother had made a mistake. That rarely happened, but I would take what I could get. This meant I could still look into clearing Nan’s name. “Heidi, look at this.”

  I so don’t want to be here when your mother finds out. Oh, this isn’t good.

  “Is the picture of someone we know?” Heidi asked, scooting closer to me so we could see who was in the picture together. Only when I’d picked up the photograph, the back of it had been facing me. There was a name displayed in masculine handwriting in black ink. “Fred. Turn it over! Maybe we can show this around to Otis, Alison, Albert, and the rest of the people who’d been involved in the case.”

  Oh, I don’t think I’d do that if I were you.

  I didn’t waste time flipping over the picture, all but ignoring Leo’s warning. We were running out of time, and the answer I’d sought for days was in my hands.

  “Whaaatttt?” Heidi asked, carrying out the question longer than necessary. “That’s just…whaaatttt?”

  Honestly, I was just as shocked as she was.

  The man staring back at us in the black and white photograph was none other than Fred Astaire.

  Fred.

  “Leo, this is Fred Astaire.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Yes, Fred.

  “I’m pretty sure Fred Astaire didn’t die until the 1980s,” Heidi whispered, giving me a shrug when I cast a questioning glance her way. “What can I say? I’m a huge fan of Funny Face. Is that Fred Fred or a Fred like Ted?”

  “Leo, was the real Fred Astaire ever in Paramour Bay?”

  Ohhhhh, I knew there was a reason you weren’t supposed to find out about Fred.

  “What does that mean?”

  Before Leo could answer my question, one of the wax figures moved.

  Literally.

  It. Moved.

  I don’t have to tell you that wax figures shouldn’t move. Well, if you discount Ted. But he was an anomaly. Unless Nan had made more of him? Wow. That was too much to take in, and Heidi didn’t even have time to scream as my arm seemed to have a will of its own.

  Somewhere inside of me was an inherent need to protect us, and nothing I did could stop the current from traveling the length of my arm.

  No, no, no! Don’t—

  Within a millisecond, my hand released an energy ball that was ten times brighter than the light from our tiny flashlights. It hit the wax figure with enough force to send it back six feet into a stack of boxes. That was enough time for Heidi and me to scramble out from the other wax figures and collection of boxes we’d been hiding behind and run toward the door.

  It should have been a clean getaway.

  Should have being the operative words.

  It would have been had my boot not gotten caught in the red silk fabric.

  Down I went in an ungraceful faceplant, all the while Heidi holding onto my arm. I had to give my best friend credit—she hadn’t left me behind. With that said, now wasn’t the most opportune time for my accident-prone tendencies to come forth.

  “Raven?”

  I had to be hearing things.

  The individual calling out my name sounded like—

  My mental break didn’t stop me from struggling to my knees and eventually my feet. Heidi never once stopped her attempt to pull me up off the filthy floor.

  “It’s me.”

  It couldn’t be.

  It is, and how could you do that to Ted?

  “Ted?”

  Yes, Ted. He might irritate me more than a little, but even he doesn’t deserve to be melted and thrown six feet onto the floor. Did you see that spectacle before you faceplanted? That was quite impressive.

  “Leo,” I warned, brushing off the cobwebs. I was tempted to wipe them on his fur to attract the eight-legged creatures, but even I wasn’t that mean. Just as I hadn’t meant to hurt Ted, but he wasn’t even supposed to be here! “Don’t push me.”

  I see you have a vindictive side. Good to know.

  I swear I could hear Leo’s shudder.

  Duly noted.

  “I didn’t mean to…” I let my words trail off, because there was no excuse for me practically incinerating Ted—who was technically a stolen wax figure. Oh, my. Could he have melted completely? “Ted, I’m so sorry!”

  You should be. You almost blew him to smithereens.

  “Ted, what on earth are you doing here?” Heidi exclaimed, shining her phone in the direction of the carnage left behind by the energy source that I had hurled from the palm of my hand. “Was that you coming through the door?”

  “Yes.”

  We both managed to reach Ted without another incident. Heidi grabbed him under his left arm while I did the same to his right, all the while maintaining our hold on our phones. It was a miracle that no one had heard our screams or Ted all but being hurled through the air. The crushed boxes and whatever might have been in them were most likely unsalvageable.

  Then again, it was really close to midnight. I’m sure the music was loud and the partygoers were ready to ring in the New Year. Any sounds we made in this room were probably stifled.

  “How did you get here?” I attempted to wipe away the dust and cobwebs that were sticking to the fabric of Ted’s suit, but it was a useless endeavor. “And where does that door lead to?”

  “In from the parking lot.”

  “Ted.” Heidi shoved her purse my way, stepping directly in front of Ted so that she could hold onto both his arms. Thankfully, he appeared unharmed. Maybe golems weren’t that easy to harm. “Look at me.”

  The two of them made quite the pair—a gentle giant and a petite-sized blonde. Ted didn’t seem to have any concept of time, but Heidi was well aware that our absences were probably being noticed. Liam and Jack would not hesitate to initiate some type of search party for us.

  “Why are you here, Ted?” Heidi didn’t waste time, and she got right to the point. “Why are you back at the wax museum?”

  “To stop Raven from discovering the truth.”

  “What truth, Ted?” What could be so bad that everyone thought it was better to keep me in the dark than to shed light on the past? “What don’t you want me to know?”

  “That I’m like Fred.”

  I promptly looked down at the photograph in my hand, suddenly everything in the crime reports making sense. Well, not everything, but enough that I could make some connections.

  “Fred was like you,” I whispered upon discovery. “That’s why there was no mention of Fred in the reports, because he didn’t actually exist.”

  “I don’t want to be the old me.”

 
It took me a few seconds to figure out what he meant. My heart ached upon comprehending his true meaning—he didn’t want to go back being an inanimate wax object. Heidi had already wrapped her arms around Ted’s waist and pressed her cheek against his chest in reassurance. It was clear that he wasn’t sure how to respond to her empathy, but he did manage to pat her awkwardly on the back of her head.

  “Do something,” Heidi instructed rather harshly in her attempt to reassure Ted that he wouldn’t end up like Fred…not that I know what actually happened to the other wax figure.

  I waited for Leo to make a crack about Ted’s discomfort or my lack of knowledge on the situation, but it never came. As a matter of fact, Leo hadn’t said anything in quite some time.

  “Ted, I can promise you that I would never take away…” I was unsure how to phrase my oath, but I put it in context of what I would want to hear. “I would never take away your humanity.”

  My mother’s warning to Heidi this past weekend on the phone that witchcraft came with a lot of responsibility took on a whole new meaning.

  Nan had given life to an inanimate object. Now that came with responsibilities.

  Had my mother figured out what my grandmother had done? Was that the reason she left town?

  Ted could now see, smell, hear, taste, and touch. He was also frightened to lose what he’d been given, which meant he’d learned to feel emotions just like a real man.

  “Ted, did Nan stop Norman Palmer because he’d discovered what she’d done to bring Fred to life?” It was all becoming rather clear, and I didn’t like the puzzle I’d put together. I didn’t even wait for Ted to answer me. I gave a rundown of the timeline I thought occurred. “Norman broke into the wax museum to confirm his suspicions. It’s why he needed a crowbar and that black ski mask. He then lost his wallet while rummaging around in the storage areas. Norman had no choice but to insert himself into Nan’s life to get close to her in search of more answers, and he somehow found out the truth—that Nan had used magic to bring the wax figure of Fred Astaire to life.”

  “Not to nitpick, but the real Fred Astaire was in fact alive at the time,” Heidi interjected with a bit of Hollywood history, holding up a hand when I shot her a daggered look. “Look, we’ve got to get back to the party. Jack and Liam have probably sent out a countywide BOLO for us by now. We need to somehow rejoin the guests without anyone realizing we’ve been gone this long. Where is Leo? Did he—”

  Heidi and I jumped when the door that Liam had gone through suddenly opened, revealing my mother—who was not in the best of moods from what I could gather.

  And whose fault is that, little Miss Detective?

  My mother wasn’t alone. Leo had purposefully sought her out.

  What was I supposed to do? Let you find out that Fred murdered Norman?

  “…do you mean Raven found out? How? And what are they doing in…”

  Light poured in from the Charlie Chaplin exhibit as my mother stood in the doorway, staring at us in horror.

  That was my reaction, too. I was blindsided.

  Well, it was mine, too. I couldn’t have heard Leo say that Fred was the one to kill Norman.

  Could I?

  Maybe. Did I let that slip?

  “Leo,” Regina muttered in disbelief before hastily closing the door behind her. “What on earth is going on here?”

  This is what I’ve been trying to tell you. While you’ve been out there partying, your daughter is about to experience the same revelation you did in high school.

  “I’m just as lost as everyone else,” Heidi muttered, unable to hear Leo’s confessions. She pressed her fingers to her forehead. “I want to point out once again that we’re running out of time.”

  Raven, they are not confessions. I have nothing to confess to. Well, unless you count the time that I broke the lamp in the bedroom. It was in the way of my tail. There was nothing I could do.

  “Is it true?” I asked my mother, ignoring Leo completely in my quest for answers. My chest tightened to the point of pain. “Did a reanimated wax figure of Fred Astaire kill Norman Palmer?”

  I don’t need to point out how ridiculous that sounds, now do I?

  Heidi didn’t have to be told that I wasn’t going anywhere until I had answers. No one would come looking for us in here, because Alison and Liam had already come through the storage room. I still had time to learn the truth about Nan, no matter how heartbreaking the reveal might be.

  “Let me get the light,” Heidi said softly, touching my shoulder reassuringly as she made her way over to the door that led to the main area. She reached up and pulled the string so that the single light bulb gave all of us the ability to see without using the flashlights on our phones.

  I could see, but that’s beside the point, isn’t it?

  Both my mother and I took a step toward Leo, who was perched on one of the boxes Ted had crushed with his right arm trying to break his fall.

  Okay. I’ll be quiet now.

  “In a manner of speaking,” my mother reluctantly admitted, clearly not wanting to have this discussion. She waved a hand in the air in helplessness, but I didn’t relent. “It was in self-defense, you see. Norman wasn’t a businessman looking at the shops here in town the way Otis had originally suspected. Norman was a journalist who’d heard that Fred Astaire had been spotted in Paramour Bay. Unfortunately, Norman quickly suspected that all was not right, and he began investigating the museum.”

  Something wasn’t adding up, but I was too stunned at the realization that Nan had covered up a murder committed by her creation. What kind of person did that? Leo was always stressing that our gift of witchcraft not be used for selfish purposes, but that’s exactly what Nan had done in this case.

  “Nan covered up for Fred?” I asked, unable to keep my incredulity hidden. “Nan allowed something she created to take a life?”

  May I speak?

  “No,” both my mother and I said in unison.

  “Raven.” My mother stepped forward, almost as if she wanted to draw me in for a hug, but I couldn’t take her offer of comfort. I stepped back, standing next to Heidi. “It’s not what you—”

  “You left town because Nan was just as guilty as her Fred Astaire golem.”

  Could we just call him Fred? He wasn’t actually Mr. Astaire.

  “That’s not quite the reason,” Regina said somewhat reluctantly, her knuckles turning white as she tightened her grip on her purse. “But seeing what happens when we pull out all the stops to protect our family secret did have something to do with it.”

  Just tell her. All of these secrets are giving me a headache.

  “You abandoned her.” Ted was frowning at my mother. A blond lock of his hair was hanging down his forehead, causing him to look like a little boy. It was clear that he was hurt on Nan’s behalf and needed to defend her. “Miss Rosemary did the best she could.”

  Wellll, she could have done a better job on me…but nobody’s perfect.

  “My mother’s best wasn’t good enough,” Regina exclaimed somewhat defensively. “Raven, now isn’t the time or place to discuss this. Liam has been looking for you, and I’m sure by now he’s organizing a search party. We should—”

  “I know Liam is looking for me, but Heidi and I haven’t been gone for more than twenty minutes.” The time span might have felt like hours, but it wasn’t. And I wasn’t leaving this room until I got the answers I’d come here to find. “Out with it, Mom. No more lies. Nan created Fred. Norman figured out that Fred wasn’t the real Fred, and then what? Fred killed Norman to keep him silent?”

  Hmmm. I might have had that itty-bitty detail turned around.

  “As I said, it wasn’t quite like that.” Regina straightened her shoulders and blurted out the opposite of my conclusion. “You see, Norman killed Fred. It wasn’t the other way around.”

  Now that’s a mic drop moment.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Well, we certainly didn’t predict this outcome,” Heidi muttered w
ith a shake of her head. “I have to say…my family antics are quite boring compared to yours.”

  “Then who killed Norman?” I asked, in total agreement with Heidi that this was not the outcome I’d seen coming. “Did Nan kill Norman Palmer? Is that why you left town?”

  Rosemary is probably spinning in her grave that you would think she was capable of such a horrible thing.

  “It’s not like anyone has corrected my assumptions, Leo.” My patience had run its course. “If Nan didn’t kill Norman Palmer and Fred didn’t kill Norman Palmer…then who did?”

  Get ready for a whopper.

  “No one murdered Norman Palmer,” Regina stated rather matter-of-factly, as if I should have known this all along. “Norman killed Fred before he fell into the lake off one of the piers after having attacked your grandmother’s creation. The man couldn’t swim. He simply drowned. It was a tragic accident, and one your grandmother had a very hard time accepting. Golems are not easy to kill, mind you, but Norman had shoved Fred onto an iron pole that was sticking up between the boards. It must have pierced the exact spot where your grandmother had enclosed Fred’s shem, which was the material component of the spell that gave him life. We never had another Fred after that.”

  We did, but you just didn’t know about it until you met the new Fred—Ted.

  No amount of witchcraft had prepared me for this, and no enchantments had aided in these discoveries. It was a quick lesson to learn that I was still an average woman with quite a bit of family issues.

  A whole lot of family issues, but who’s counting?

  “Why not just tell me this from the beginning?” I asked, really confused as to why my mother hadn’t come clean the moment I’d brought up Fred on the telephone. “Your behavior led me to believe that Nan might be a murderer.”

  That’s true, Regina.

  “You, too,” I scolded Leo. “It was mean of both of you.”

  “Agreed,” Heidi said softly, staring at Leo in disappointment.