Phantom Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 12) Read online

  “Ugly?” Heidi asked with a frown. She made sure the latch on the leg of the table was secure before stepping back and leveling Leo a disappointed stare. “I would never say something like that to you. You’re my handsome tomcat, Leo. Did Beetle give you too much catnip this morning?”

  In all honesty, I was pretty taken aback that Leo would accuse Heidi of saying that he was unattractive. She’d been nothing short of supportive of his disheveled appearance.

  You see, Leo was technically my grandmother’s familiar.

  Nan had cast a necromancy spell of some sort to keep him from crossing into the afterlife with her so that he could stay behind and show me the way in this whole magical lifestyle thing.

  Not knowing that I came from a long line of witches until the age of thirty had definitely set back my learning curve.

  Thank you, Mother.

  Anyway, dabbling in any kind of black magic certainly had its consequences.

  The necromancy spell had left Leo with a few crooked whiskers, a bent tail that resembled a hanger, tufts of fur that went every which way at random, and munchkin legs that somehow managed to keep his overweight body barely off the ground. Then there was the short-term memory loss issue that had somehow morphed into every kind of memory issue ever mentioned in medical journals.

  Everyone in town thought Leo was a rescue from New York City, and I hadn’t dissuaded them from that assumption.

  Sometimes it was easier to go with the flow.

  So what that my left eye bulges a little bit? I have better insight because of it. And let me tell you, you’re not looking too good today, either. You look a little hollow in the cheeks, if you ask me.

  I immediately pressed both hands against my cheeks, wondering if I’d forgotten to put on my makeup this morning.

  Was I that pale?

  I shouldn’t be.

  At least, not with all the weeding that I’d been doing in the front yard recently. I swear Nan must have cast an entangle spell on her landscaping out front of the cottage. One weed pulled meant another two grew in its place.

  There could only one reason why Leo would be making such assumptions, and I should have been more watchful of what he’d been consuming lately.

  “You’re right, Heidi. I think Beetle is giving Leo that generic catnip again. It’s bringing out a mean streak in him a mile long.” I reached down and picked up the tin box of what cash I’d collected this morning in a huff. I set it back on the table with a thud, along with my travel mug full of coffee. “I warned Beetle not to buy the bargain stuff from the ads on social media. You never know what you’re going to get.”

  I pasted a smile on my face when Mrs. Salazar finally came out with a dustpan. She cleaned up the broken vase in record time, faster than I could have and without any cuts or scrapes. I ended up giving her the potholders in appreciation for her help after she commented on the lovely ladybug pattern.

  “Um, Raven?”

  My hands stilled over a wicker basket that I no longer needed at the slight sound of panic in Heidi’s soft tone. She’d gone over to where Leo was still looking at himself in the mirror, incessantly making random comments that honestly didn’t make much sense.

  Well, technically he was still talking about how pale I was today, but I’d been doing my best to ignore him.

  Whatever catnip was still in his system had to eventually dissipate soon, right?

  “I know that tone, Heidi,” I whispered warily as I saw Elsie and Wilma begin to walk up the driveway with totes dangling from each arm. They were ready to add more items to their treasures and were giggling like two teenage girls. “Please tell me that one of the occult relics didn’t get put in the garage sale items by mistake.”

  Now listen here, you nincompoop! You can’t tell me what to do like I’m some ordinary housecat!

  “Okay,” Heidi readily agreed, quickly leaning down and somehow managing to swoop Leo up in her arms as if he weighed nothing more than a feather. “I won’t tell you that. Leo and I are heading into the house for a bit. We’ll be back out later.”

  Elsie and Wilma had gone over to Heidi’s table first, oohing and awing over a set of windchimes that Heidi had replaced with new ones that weren’t quite so loud. I took advantage of the momentary break and hastily cut off Heidi and Leo. They both brought their heads up to meet my gaze. I could tell from the way Leo’s left eye bulged that I’d misunderstood his side of the conversation.

  “Leo, please tell me that you were talking to me this entire time,” I whispered in dread, hearing Elsie go on and on about the windchimes. Now would be a good time for one of those coastal breezes to come through the area and knock me over. “I’ll even give you a pass that you called me a nincompoop.”

  Instead of answering me, both Leo and Heidi looked down toward the ground in unison.

  The urge to do the same was overwhelming, and I began to sense the tingles in the palm of my hand that appeared when there was danger nearby.

  “Oh, this isn’t going to be good, is it?” I managed to glance over at Elsie and Wilma instead of looking down, tapping my fingers against my palm. “Not good at all.”

  Leo had offhandedly mentioned that my inherent knack of sensing danger malfunctioned every now and then. I mean, wasn’t there a good possibility that it was doing so now?

  I took a deep breath and finally caved into the need to see for myself what could be so bad that it had taken Leo’s mind off his annual battle with the neighborhood squirrels. The mirror that had cracked but not shattered still remained on the ground. My first thought was that it wasn’t one of the occult items that I’d found at the local antique shop.

  Needless to say, I was finally able to let go of the tension that had pent up in my shoulders. Relief had washed through me like a tidal wave, similar to the effect caffeine had on me with the first sip of the day.

  “I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” I said, releasing my fingers and wiggling them toward the ground. “It’s just a mirror that I found in the back of the linen—”

  I cut off my sentence when the mirror seemed to become somewhat foggy…all on its own.

  Oh, this couldn’t be good.

  What appeared to be a mist began to slowly circle in graceful waves and loops until an image began to morph into an oblong face.

  “Hello.”

  Heidi, Leo, and I all startled at the word said aloud, though I was the only one who’d let out a shriek of alarm. A few heads turned my way to see what on earth could have possibly happened to me once again this morning, so I began to wave my hand as if a bee was bothering me.

  “Nice save,” Heidi muttered, tightening her grip on Leo. He didn’t seem to mind, though. “What are we going to do?”

  Step on him. What else would we do?

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Mr. Benny,” the misty face exclaimed with a frown. “Mr. Leo, I mean. You changed your name after the necromancy spell, if I recall. Good for you! Now, where were we? Ah, yes! Stepping on me would release me in this form, thus preventing me from crossing into the afterlife. I cannot, under any circumstances, leave this realm until you’ve helped me solve my murder.”

  Bernard? Is that you, old chap?

  Leo seemed to still in Heidi’s arms as if he realized what he’ just said.

  His crooked whisker began to twitch a mile a minute while I was still coming to terms with the fact that Leo was now talking with a phantom who was stuck in one of Nan’s old hand mirrors, all the while acting as if they were long-lost friends.

  “Bernard?” I whispered harshly, pasting a smile on my face when Elsie and Wilma finally began walking in our direction. “Now isn’t the best time for one of your memory blips, Leo.”

  It’s hard to time these things, Raven. Didn’t you say a few moments ago that it was easier to go with the flow when it came to my idiosyncrasies? Good ol’ Bernard here has been trying to solve his murder for close to a century. Go figure. I forgot all about my beloved Rosemary stuffing him in
the back of the linen closet. It’s good to see you again, Bernard. How’s it hanging?

  “Go figure?” I repeated in a rather guttural moan so that Elsie and Wilma wouldn’t overhear me. I was given a few extra seconds when they caught sight of the wicker basket, already arguing over who would be the one to buy it. “There’s a phantom trapped in a mirror who was murdered a century ago, Leo. That’s a pretty big thing to forget.”

  Go with the flow, Raven. Go with the flow. You’ll live longer.

  Chapter Two

  “I’m really trying not to freak out here, Raven,” Heidi exclaimed, carefully setting down the cracked mirror in one of her kitchen chairs so that it could be propped up against the spindles. She eyed the misty face cautiously as she stepped back. “What are we going to do about this…floating head?”

  Heidi had handled the fact that a man from close to a hundred years ago was currently trapped inside an enchanted mirror pretty well, all things considered. My mother had been taking time and mentoring my best friend in spells and potions in a way that a fledgling hedge witch could master.

  They were simple enchantments, really.

  No one needed the actual abilities of a witch to act as a conduit to the earth.

  Hedge witches were regular everyday mortals who harnessed the elemental forces present amongst us all, whereas true witches were capable of gathering those same forces and amplifying the draw on those powers by establishing a focused conduit or path to increase the strength of a spell.

  With the instability of the coven and Leo being the key to their salvation, it was best to have every weapon at our disposal—even a fledgling hedge witch. The last thing we needed to do was complicate our lives with a century-old murder.

  “We’re going to have a cup of coffee,” I declared with a bit of desperation, needing something to soothe my rattled nerves. Besides, we’d left our travel mugs outside and I needed a minute to wrap my head around the fact that a phantom had been stuffed in my linen closet the entire time that I’d lived at the cottage. “Elsie and Wilma said they would man the tables for an hour while you and I came inside and sort through more boxes. I’m hoping that buys us enough time to figure out what we’re going to do. Okay, you two. I want an explanation.”

  My request was directed toward Leo and Bernard, who had been talking non-stop ever since Leo’s memory had been jogged about their previous friendship. Leo had hopped up on another chair and settled in, clearly content with the situation now that he understood that Bernard hadn’t been roasting him over his altered appearance.

  From the brief explanation I’d heard as we made our way into the house, Bernard had been complaining about being stuffed in with the sheets, only to be forgotten. Upon reawakening from a deep sleep, he’d immediately taken out his frustration on Leo.

  “Bernard, we might as well make some introductions,” Heidi said as normally as she could, under the circumstances. I mean, it wasn’t every day one had a conversation with a spirt trapped inside a mirror. She motioned for me to take a seat at the kitchen table while she went about pouring us two cups of coffee. “I’m Heidi, a novice hedge witch.”

  “Mr. Bernard Williams, at your service! And I know who you are, dear. You are Miss Marigold’s best friend from New York City,” Bernard exclaimed as his head floated side to side as he talked. Honestly, it was hard to believe that I was looking at a spirit that had been trapped inside a mirror for decades upon decades. The only thing that had kept me from scooting my chair farther away was the fact that Heidi had set down a mug filled with my sanity source directly onto the table in front of me. “You purchased a well-established accounting firm from an old chap named Beetle, who is currently engaged to Miss Marigold’s mother. You also happen to be dating an oaf of a detective who is employed by the state police. It did take me a moment to figure out what Mr. Leo meant by oaf, but I ascertained the meaning when—”

  Bernard, don’t make me put another crack in your mirror. You’ve obviously been bored while stuck in the back of the linen closet, but there’s no need to recount every conversation you so clearly misunderstood. After all, I’m sure our conversations were a bit muffled with all those towels and sheets in the way. Right?

  “Leo, I might not be able to hear you, but I can guess it’s about covering your wiggling butt,” Heidi said with a pointed stare as she brought her coffee over to the table after she’d added some cream and sugar to her mug. “Bernard, you should know the unbiased truth about Detective Jack Swanson. He’s kind, compassionate, and loyal to a fault. And, he just may be able to help solve your murder.”

  “Oh, yes,” Bernard agreed heartily, easily diverted from sharing his knowledge on Heidi’s life. I’d be just as talkative if I hadn’t been able to say a word in the year and a half that he’d clearly been hidden in the back of the closet. “My murder. One minute, I was standing near a warm roaring fire while smoking my favorite pipe. Ahhh, I can still taste the sweet, sun-dried Velvet tobacco on my tongue. There was nothing like—”

  I forgot how talkative you are, Bernard. I believe that’s why my beloved Rosemary had to put you away every time she had company over.

  “Wait a second,” I finally said, needing to clear up just how Bernard came into my Nan’s possession. My curiosity got the best of me, and I scooted my chair forward until my forearms rested on the kitchen table. “How long have you been in the linen closet, Bernard?”

  “Rosemary was having renovations done on her kitchen, and she was afraid that they would knock me down from my hook where I was hanging on the wall near the pantry,” Bernard shared, his chin tilting up just like it would have had he been human. “It wasn’t a few weeks after the work was complete that I heard my dear friends weeping over the loss of their beloved Rosemary in the living room. A heart attack, right in the middle of town on her daily walk. A travesty, for sure! I tried to call out but being in the dark for so long had diminished the magic of my phylactery. Eventually, there was nothing but darkness.”

  That was Ted you heard sobbing like some giant grey Crayola in the living room. I was more composed, of course. I had to keep it together for the good of the family. You understand how it is, Bernard. I had to be the pillar of support.

  “How is Mr. Ted doing nowadays? I miss that gentle giant, so wise beyond his wax years. The last I remember it, he was…”

  I hadn’t had time to mention Ted yet, but he was the result of another instance when my Nan had used questionable magic. I was beginning to see a pattern, but I pushed it aside to focus on the mystery at hand.

  Bernard was right in describing Ted as a gentle giant made of wax. You see, my Nan had found Ted at the wax museum located at the entrance of town. He was literally made from the mold of the character Lurch from the hit television series The Addams Family. She’d needed a companion along with Leo, especially one capable of moving about in the community to gather material components for spells and potions without anyone being the wiser.

  Right now, though, we needed to stay on topic if we were going to get to the bottom of Bernard’s predicament.

  “Bernard,” I said, interrupting him again so that we could figure out what to do with him for the time being. “How did you end up with my grandmother?”

  You didn’t happen to bring my catnip pipe with you, did you? If you keep asking questions, we’re going to be here all day.

  “Now there’s a story,” Bernard said with a hearty laugh that had Heidi inching her chair towards me. “She found me at the annual garage sale. Can you believe the coincidence? I’d been in storage for so long that it took two days of me being in the sun before I began to catch glimpses of the outside world once again. At first, I saw the luminous clouds drifting by and the majestic birds flying overhead. By the time the vision of a raven-haired witch with the most beautiful set of green eyes had appeared, I still wasn’t able to utter a word. But her sweet smile with those ruby red lips reassured me that all was going to be okay, all the while I was wishing I had been able to truly mee
t her in the flesh. Rosemary took me home with her that day and…”

  There’s no off switch or volume control, in case you’re wondering.

  I shot Leo a warning glance, realizing why Nan had to put Bernard in the linen closet every now and then. At this rate, it would take all afternoon and well into the evening to get the full story, but I didn’t want to hurt Bernard’s feelings.

  It was best to remain on our current course.

  You’re a little slow on the uptake, Raven. There is no staying on course with Bernard. Sorry, old chap. I’m just telling it like it is.

  “No worries, old friend. I’ve always admired your honesty.”

  “Bernard, where were you before my Nan bought you at the garage sale?” I inquired before he could say anything more, finally taking a sip of my sanity saving beverage. “Whose table?”

  “That would be one Miss Gertrude Watson. She had such a sweet disposition, though it was her mother who had run a tight ship over at the bed and breakfast. Mabel had that place running like a well-oiled machine back in the day,” Bernard shared with what seemed to be admiration, wisps of white gliding back and forth as he hovered in the middle of the mirror. “I recall this one time—”

  “Mabel Watson?” Heidi asked, being the one to cut Bernard off this time. “You were at the Paramour Bay Inn when Gertie’s mother ran it? I mean, you knew her personally?”

  Ask Heidi if she has any of my edibles in the cupboard, Raven. There’s no way that I can make it through the rest of the morning without something to keep me going. Do you know how much energy I expended on today’s battle with Skippy and his band of ninja misfits? I might have actually lost a pound with all that running around.