Spellbinding Blend Read online

  I’d rather skip this little trip down memory lane. Didn’t you mention that we have a murder mystery to solve? I guess there is no need for me to take a staycation day when things are just starting to come together. Shall we head out?

  For Leo to want to dive head first into a murder investigation over talking about the past told me there was a lot to be gleaned from this conversation he would rather avoid taking place. Unfortunately, I wasn’t so sure I actually wanted to hear a recount of my mother’s past love life.

  You don’t. Trust me.

  “Beetle, you’re from Paramour Bay originally, right?” I asked, prodding him to open up about his connection with the Marigold family. “Were you ever friends with my mother?”

  Look at the time. We should head on out now, don’t you think? The weather could turn. It’s happened before.

  Leo had rolled over and stood on all four paws, telling me he was quite serious about avoiding this conversation. It was hard to miss the disdained glance he gave at the lipstick stain left from a fairy we had saved on a past case before arching his back to stretch. His bad mood had just gotten worse, regardless of his morning treat.

  Fairies. You just had to remind me. Listen, what time did you say the carnival opened? We should start walking that way or we’ll miss the scuttlebutt at the diner. Your mother can catch up with us when she arrives in town. I’m sure she wouldn’t have much trouble finding us.

  There was no way I was missing out on this conversation, especially when Leo was so dead set against it.

  “Why, yes, I am from Paramour Bay. I was born and raised here, my dear Raven.” Beetle had stood from the stool behind him, standing up straight and fiddling with his tie to make sure that it was tucked securely inside his cardigan sweater. “This is a wonderful town, Raven. Wonderful. I was quite sad when your mother decided to move away. I haven’t seen her in many, many years.”

  Looking back over the times my mother had been in town, she had always missed seeing Beetle. With that said, she’d never really mentioned much of anything about which residents she’d known on a personal level. Other than Cora Barnes, who was pretty much my mother’s high school nemesis, the only other person my mom had exchanged more than a passing hello with was Trixie. Cora owned the malt shop next door, and Trixie owned the diner. Just who else had my mother been friends with that I didn’t know about?

  Didn’t you say that we needed to find an item owned by the victim? What was his name? Oh, that’s right—Kevin Paul. That poor, poor man. He deserves justice, Raven. No time to waste. Chop, chop!

  Leo was starting to give me a headache.

  “Were you and Regina friends when you both were younger?” Heidi asked, sealing the two cups with disposable lids in such a natural way that Beetle had no idea she was fishing for information. Her train of thought was on the same track as mine, and I focused my full attention on my employee. How could I have not seen what a wealth of information he could be regarding my mother’s childhood? “Did the two of you go to high school together?”

  Both Heidi and Beetle ignored Leo’s loud meows, both having grown used to his bid for attention. Of course, only Heidi was aware that Leo was talking to me and clearly showing his displeasure. Well, Leo could keep meowing until the cows came home.

  Fine. I’ll cut to the chase. Trust me when I say that you don’t want to know about your mother’s past love interests. She chose to leave Paramour Bay in her early twenties, and that’s that. End of story. Nothing more to say.

  “We did, we did go to high school together,” Beetle answered in his usual fashion. He leaned back on his dress shoes, a faraway look in his eyes as memories from the past obviously resurfaced. “Regina was such a beautiful young woman, always walking around with a glint of mischief in those green eyes of hers. I recall asking her to the senior prom and having my heart broken into tiny pieces when she said she hadn’t planned on going. You see, she was a freshman.”

  Hearing about how my mother broke Beetle’s heart confirmed Leo’s outlook about the past, but maybe Leo was right. We had a lot on our plate, and I was beginning to think that now wasn’t the time or place to hear about my mother’s past deeds. A daughter needed to be in a certain mood to be given detailed information that was rather sensitive.

  Besides, we had a murder mystery to solve.

  That’s the spirit. Hey, seeing as you’re now all gung-ho about this amateur sleuthing business, what are the odds that I can still get that staycation?

  I needed to signal Heidi that it was best we leave well enough alone. I couldn’t wait for the infusion of caffeine either, so I walked over to the high-top table where Heidi had set our drinks. I gave her the cut-it-out motion before picking up my coffee.

  “That’s so sad, Beetle.” Heidi had begun setting out some sample cups around the carafe, though she was still hanging on to Beetle’s every word. She gave me a glance that said she didn’t understand my hand chop signal, which did not bode well for me. “Did Regina end up going with someone else that year or did she stay home?”

  It’s hard to believe that I love Heidi so. Her inability to understand our cues is going to have all of us landing in hot water.

  I had a feeling that Leo was talking about my biological father. Mom didn’t have a lot of heart-to-heart conversations concerning the past, and I’d learned long ago to not ask questions she didn’t want to answer. She’d become quite the expert of pretending anything that happened before she moved to New York didn’t exist, so you can imagine the shock she’d been dealt when she’d discovered that Nan had passed away and left everything for me to deal with.

  It had occurred to me that my biological father might still reside in Paramour Bay, but then that thought had flown right out the window when my mother began visiting me on and off since my move here. Would she have put herself in the crosshairs of the very man who’d broken her heart?

  Regina only comes to this town if it’s to try to talk you into returning to New York City or to help clean up one of your messes. I, for one, would like to keep it that way.

  “To this day, I don’t believe Newt appreciated your mother’s company. He was a couple of years older than her too, but he wasn’t a senior like me.” Beetle had made that confession followed by a tsking noise. He had no idea that he’d knocked all the oxygen out of my lungs. “Well, bygones are bygones, right? It will be such a pleasure to see her again. An absolute pleasure!”

  Newt?

  Paramour Bay’s local mechanic?

  What can of worms had I just popped open?

  Between spiders, fairies, and clowns…I can’t handle worms, Raven. I’m now at my wits end. You need to stop digging this hole we’re all going to end up in…with those slimy worms.

  Newt and my mother had dated in high school. This was news to me, and I’d had about all the history lessons I could stand for one day.

  Considering I was the spitting image of the Marigold women with long black hair, practically iridescent green eyes, and high cheekbones, it would have been rather difficult to guess what my father would have looked like when he was younger, let alone what his appearance might be in his mid to late fifties.

  Who said anything about Newt being your biological father? How in the supernatural realm did this beautiful morning get set on fire and turned into nothing but a pile of ash? This conversation might be worse than seeing that creepy clown from last night. Wait. I take that back. Clowns are spawned from the devil, so maybe you’re skirting the line there.

  Heidi had just finished pouring the last sample cup and placing it on the warmer when she finally caught on to what I’d been attempting to avoid. Of course, it helped that Leo had jumped down from the display window and was becoming rather hoarse from the frustrated meows. Her pink lips formed the perfect O as she grabbed her own cup of coffee and began moving toward the exit. Maybe our future cues should come in the form of a brick.

  There might be something worse than clowns around here. If so, I’m sure it’ll turn
up sooner rather than later.

  On that note, the bell above the door rang, and I didn’t have to turn around to know that my mother had entered the tea shop. Leo had already given her an introduction, which she’d clearly heard from her sharp reply.

  “Leo, it’s always a distinct pleasure.”

  There was nothing unusual about my mother greeting Leo, especially seeing as he’d strolled closer to the glass door when he’d been in a panic over Beetle’s history lesson. Beetle had no idea that my mother and I were witches, but humans talked to their pets all the time. It was only considered eccentric behavior, and it was rather cute to pretend that they could understand us.

  Did you just infer that I’m a common housecat?

  “Mom, I’m so glad you could come for the festival my first year representing the shop,” I exclaimed, turning around with a forced smile. It would take a while for the weight of this morning’s conversation to ease, but now wasn’t the time for me to go digging into my mother’s love life to discover who my biological father might be. “Heidi and I are starving. Let’s walk over to the diner.”

  You can’t throw the hammer and not expect it to hit something, Thor.

  “My beautiful Regina, it’s been way too long,” Beetle exclaimed with happiness, making his way over to her as he held out both of his hands. It was a good thing Heidi had veered from the exit and joined me back at the high-top table, because it was her surprised reaction that told me I hadn’t been mistaken when I saw a flush of red cover my mother’s cheeks. “You haven’t an aged a bit, my dear. You look as stunning as ever. Just stunning!”

  Beetle pressed a rather enthusiastic kiss to the back of my mother’s hand, and I could only stand back and watch as my mother returned his praise in kind.

  “Why, Beetle, you haven’t changed a bit, either. Still a handsome devil, and just as charming to boot.” My mother might have actually batted her eyelashes, but I’d been blinking mine too furiously to know for sure. It was never a pleasant sight to witness one’s mother flirting with a man four years her senior. Or was it five? “I couldn’t believe it when Raven told me that you were going to be helping out with the tea shop. She made such a wise choice in hiring you, and I told her as much.”

  Please tell me I’m hallucinating. Why is your mother looking at my BFF as if she were hit with that Cupid’s arrow you were slinging around over Valentine’s Day? You know, the one that had the entire town in an uproar. I can only take so much. And there it is—I think I’ve got another hairball caught in my throat.

  I was too flabbergasted that my mother could lie with such ease over her reaction to Beetle’s employment to answer Leo. I distinctly, and in great detail, recalled the ten to fifteen-minute lecture I received over hiring anyone to work in the tea shop. She’d been concerned—and rightly so—that Beetle might see something that would give away our family secret.

  Your mother has always been the do as I say, not as I do type.

  “Breathe,” Heidi murmured, ordering me to sustain my life. She even gave me a slap on the back to get me started. “Let’s just get your mother over to the diner before we need to bleach our eyes.”

  Having to solve the murder of a carnival worker that may have been committed by a warlock was bad enough, but to have my mother flirt with my new employee was a little bit too much. I could only handle so much on the amount of caffeine I’d consumed this morning—which wasn’t nearly enough.

  “Mom, we really should be heading over to the diner before it’s too late to get a booth.”

  Chances are we were already too late to grab a decent spot, and we’d be stuck at some table near the door, far away from all the good scuttlebutt happening in the clutch of booths with a sightline straight down the counter. Leo was right about my recent streak of bad luck.

  “My beloved Regina, would you do me the honor of having dinner with me this evening?” Beetle asked, even giving my mother a small bow of enticement. His blue eyes sparkled with excitement in a way I haven’t seen since he learned to use the cash register. “It would give us a chance to catch up and relive some of our glory days before you left.”

  I feel another hairball coming up.

  “Mom.” I really needed some air. Thankfully, Pearl had just walked past the display window, providing me with a legitimate reason to stop the direction of this conversation. “A customer is about to walk in, and we really should leave Beetle to his work.”

  “Beetle, I would love to have dinner with you,” my mother crooned as if I hadn’t said a word, causing Heidi to have to hide her amused smile behind her hand. I found absolutely nothing funny about this current quandary. “Let me spend some bonding time with the girls today, and then I’ll meet you here at five o’clock so we can go out after you close.”

  I’m putting my paw down. I cannot—I repeat, cannot—put up with the both of you dating human males in a town this small. This is exactly how secrets get exposed, and now your mother has just gone and doubled the odds of our exposure. I’m now in need of a nap to rid me of all this anxiety.

  “Raven and Heidi, are the two of you ready to begin our day of adventure?” Regina wiggled her fingers at a beaming Beetle before turning on the heel of her black ankle boot. It was like no one had died and we weren’t trying to solve a man’s murder that quite possibly was linked to a very secret society we needed to keep under wraps. “I’d love to visit the fortune teller booth sometime today for the fun of it. Doesn’t that sound like fun, girls?”

  Pearl hadn’t opened the glass door quite yet, but I’d been too focused on my mother to notice the reason why. I followed the older woman’s gaze down the sidewalk, toward where the malt shop and Mindy’s boutique were located, but there was no one in sight. Well, other than Leo who’d managed quite ungracefully to leap back up into the display window.

  “Beetle, I’ll have my cell phone with me all day if there’s an issue. I can be back here in under five minutes,” I reassured him, patting the right pocket of my peacock skirt where I’d stored my phone. “Don’t forget that Pearl’s diffuser is on the top—”

  Have you ever seen those videos of people setting cucumbers behind a cat to scare them? Or have you ever startled a cat by inadvertently making a quick movement or causing a loud sound?

  Well, it was a wonder that Leo wasn’t hanging from the ceiling by the tips of his scraggily claws.

  Every strand of fur, even the tufts, was standing at attention as he arched his back in the most unnatural position. I’m pretty sure his right eye bulged out as much as his left, and his paws had levitated six inches off his pillow.

  You see, the clown who had been at the scene of the murder last night had suddenly appeared smack dab in front of the display window. There had been no warning, no cued music like in the movies. No, there had been absolutely no foreshadowing of the clown’s unexpected appearance.

  Needless to say, Pearl made haste and was inside the tea shop before any one of us could react. Heidi had let out a small yelp, and Beetle had laid a hand over his chest as if he were about ready to have a heart attack.

  “I forgot to mention that I invited Buttons the Clown to breakfast,” my mother announced, throwing a smirk Leo’s way. “Aren’t those happy pranksters just the best?”

  Chapter Four

  “It’s probably a good thing we left Leo back at the tea shop,” Heidi murmured, hanging back as my mother and Buttons quickly grabbed a booth that was just now being vacated by Otis and Karen. The former sheriff and his wife seemed quite surprised to find that my mom was in town, and then there was Buttons in his full regalia. Regardless, they made small talk about the festival as if nothing was amiss before taking their leave. “Maybe I should have stayed behind. You know, talked business with Beetle. What time did I say was my first house showing?”

  “You are not leaving me here alone with that trickster,” I whispered back, pasting a smile on my face when my mother looked my way as she slid into the booth. “And you know darn well that I’m not ta
lking about the clown, either.”

  My mother was up to her usual fare. We potentially had a murderous warlock in town who might very well have used his magic to take a human life, and my mother wanted to have breakfast with a clown complete with makeup in the only diner in town. I’d known for quite a while that my life had become rather…unconventional. Of course, this current masterpiece was all my mother’s doing. Mixing warlocks with clowns was beyond my ability to guess at where she was coming from in the most remote fashion.

  Speaking of the possible warlock in question, Rye was sitting at the counter next to Alfred and Eugene. The two older gentlemen were retired. They had plenty of free time, and they liked to play chess over at Monty’s hardware store to pass the hours of the day. The three men seemed to be engaged in a debate over what wood made better fences in wet saltwater climates like ours. Could someone enjoy breakfast and have such a commonplace discussion over such a mundane subject after they’d murdered someone in cold blood? Only a psychopath would be capable of such behavior, in my judgement.

  Heidi suddenly rushed by me, awkwardly sliding into our side of the booth. I’d been so caught up in listening to Rye’s conversation that I hadn’t noticed who’d taken what seat. It was then I realized that she didn’t want to be the one sitting across from the clown while she ate. My best friend had sacrificed me to the court jester who went by the moniker of Buttons.

  “My name is Raven, and this is Heidi.” I cautiously sat on the soft vinyl while keeping a close eye on my mother’s guest, wondering if Heidi wasn’t right about making an excuse to get out of Dodge. “I didn’t know the two of you knew one another.”

  “Oh, we don’t,” Buttons fessed up with a really, really big smile full of gleaming white teeth. Who knew such a happy response could be so unsettling? “We ran into each other on the sidewalk, and your mother was kind enough to ask me to join you ladies for breakfast. I couldn’t say no to such a beautiful woman. We carnies travel all over the country, and I have to say that the people here in Paramour Bay are just about the nicest bunch we’ve ever run into.”